Agile management is a management style that has slowly evolved to replace traditional management in many of the most successful companies. Rather than simply focusing on the end result of a particular project, this style of management encompasses programs that are designed to be implemented for all projects. These include the following:
Leaders at Every Level
Decisions affecting the company are going to be made at every level. It follows that all levels of management, from senior executives and project managers to supervisors and line managers, need to have access to the tools they need for decision making, the framework for leadership and the business knowledge they need. This is true even if these different levels of management do not necessarily get the same information.
Small Teams = High Performance
By keeping the size of a team small, decisions are able to be made quickly, and accountability is almost instantaneous. With such a small team, hands on learning is facilitated, the team members learn to communicate with each other effectively and they also learn to work together. The large teams that are popular in traditional management systems tend to bog down the entire decision making process.
Cultivate a Learning Culture
Agile management encourages mistakes, as well as learning from those mistakes. By taking the time to learn, the results are examined, discussed and reviewed. Cultivating this open exchange of ideas that worked or did not work enables a team to formulate solutions as an ongoing process.
Focus on Feedback and Accountability
By allowing team members to control a problem and giving them the ability to take action, they are more likely to come up with solutions. With this type of feedback, innovative thinking and decision making are encouraged and expanded on. Accountability allows all team members that work on the project together to become invested in the project. They also know they have coaching and feedback from their peers and management team, if they need it.
Celebrate Diversity
In today's business world, diversity encompasses a range of different attributes such as age, nationality, gender, nature, background and race. Within this rich group of differences, ideas, thoughts and processes can only benefit. These different experiences allow team members to bring their differences to the table. This allows them to learn and exposes them to different ideas and cultures. Innovations are often the results of such mergers.
Allow Transparent Access to Information
Enabling management to access all information such as customer feedback, internal talents and financial results allows them to determine what areas are strong and which ones need work. Managers can find the talent they need from within the company to complete a project when they are able to see the strengths of other employees.
Nimble, innovative and diverse, agility management is a proven way of handling the inner workings of a company. All companies, no matter their size, can benefit from the framework in which agility management operates.
Author
Katie Goddard has 15 years experience writing about business and educational technology, with a special interest in the inner workings of the business world, as well as a passion for management. When she's not contributing to college resource site DegreeJungle.com, Katie is spending time with her husband Mark, and her two lovely daughters.
Reference
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/05/26/agile-management-7-keys-to-success
