Agility, Soccer, and CIOs
Whether a team wins or loses a soccer game depends on their goalkeeper. The goalkeeper is responsible for blocking the ball from entering the goal, allowing the opposing team to score a point. To be a good goalkeeper, one must be agile. Agility is the ability to read the situation and quickly respond to a stimulus.¹ When the goalkeeper sees the ball heading for the top corner of the goal, they quickly jump and raise their arms to block it, preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goalkeeper’s agility saves the day.
Agility is not only present on soccer fields. Quickly reading and reacting to a situation is a valuable mental skill in the workplace, and recently agility has been a focus of business practices and theories. Agile teams and agile leadership are more than buzzwords or trends. The concept of an agile team stems from the Information Technology (IT) industry.² Agile leadership was popularized in 2011 regarding software development teams.¹ Now, various industries implement agile teams in their business structure. These groups, built on the concept of agility, consist of individuals with expertise in different areas who self-organize to accomplish a goal or deliverable.
In coming years, 65.8% of 11.3 million employees worldwide expect “resilience, flexibility, and agility” to rise in importance. Not only is agility a skill projected to become increasingly relevant, but agile teams are also becoming a priority for leaders and employees. Despite their growth in popularity, agile teams have weaknesses, and the concept might not be as flawless as professionals think. The “dark side”³ of agile teams lies in the wide variation of its definition and the reliance on business leaders to effectively implement and measure agility. These challenges must be addressed for teams to be successful.
The Challenge of Ambiguity in Agility
A major challenge of agile teams is ambiguity in what agility means. There are countless definitions, models, and practices of agile teams rather than a single clear example to follow. This ambiguity stems from the fact that agile leadership is not a common topic of academic research. An article from the IUP Journal of Soft Skills explains that because empirical research has not produced a standard model for agile teams, companies develop unique models.¹
This causes issues when a company consists of employees, contractors, freelancers, etc., who have experienced different agile practices and have varying ideas of what it means to be on an agile team. Although it is beneficial to have team members from various backgrounds, the lack of unity regarding what an agile team looks like causes tension. Team members need a common goal and a clear understanding of how to get there.
Implementing a single agile team model is challenging because so many agile practices exist. For instance, the IUP Journal of Soft Skills lists five general guidelines for agile teams, such as guidance over control and value creation over output.¹ At the same time, another scholarly journal provides five different principles, such as quality face-to-face communication and reflection on past experience.²
Neither of these lists is necessarily wrong; however, they illustrate the extreme variation in the definition of an agile team. An article from the HRM International Digest explains that “which practices are adopted and ways in which they are utilized is prone to vary substantially. One cap doesn’t fit all here as marked differences can and do occur.”²
Because there is no one-size-fits-all for agile teams, companies must intentionally design their model, which takes time and effort. Managers may expect agile teams to be a “set it and forget it” concept where they lay out instructions and have the company run like a machine accordingly. However, developing agility requires guidance and practice. Athletes utilize personal trainers and specially designed exercises to improve their physical agility—much like how agile business teams need clearly outlined practices to follow.
The Leaders of Agility
Like a personal trainer, a business manager helps team members develop agility. This heavy reliance on leaders is a disadvantage of agile teams. First, selecting an effective leader is difficult. The qualities needed for agile leadership are not always found in those considered leaders because they are high performers.¹ Companies cannot simply put one of their high-achievers in charge and expect agile leadership to occur.
Selecting an effective agile leader is imperative because they set the “agility agenda” by who they hire, the culture they create, and the practices they implement.¹ Choosing the wrong leader is a weakness of agile teams that must be avoided. Not only should an agile leader be present, but they should also create a psychologically safe environment and implement effective measures for agile teams.
Agile Leaders: Creating a Safe Space
The first challenge of agile leadership is that agile teams will only be successful if leadership fosters a safe environment. According to the Journal of Product Innovation Management article “Mitigating the Dark Side of Agile Teams,” agile teams have an above-average level of peer pressure.³
A core tenet of an agile team is self-management; team members rely on each other to reach a common goal and are heavily impacted when an individual lacks. Although this autonomy can be empowering, the pressure can also reduce innovativeness within the team.³ Agile teams cannot succeed if they do not work in a psychologically safe environment with a healthy amount of peer pressure.
Leaders can address this weakness of agile teams by examining the level of trust within a company. Specifically within the information technology space, a CIO Journal article states that failing to build trust is the number one agile practice that “will lead to digital disaster.”⁴ A Chief Information Officer implementing agile teams should not assume sufficient trust and psychological safety exist within their company.
A team built on this incorrect assumption will fail because “agile can help build trust between teams, stakeholders, and leadership, but agile cannot correct a lack of trust between people.” Abundance of peer pressure and lack of trust are threats that can lead to the downfall of any soccer team, information technology company, or business group.
Agile Leaders: Measuring Success
An additional weakness of agile teams is the challenge of measuring their effectiveness. Even if they don’t know how to measure it, agility is of interest to business leaders in the United States. Figure X highlights that “creating a more agile and flexible program” is the fourth-highest priority of learning and development (L&D) professionals in a 2022 sample.
Agility in business is important, but how is it measured? This question is a struggle for leaders, especially if the company’s agile principles are vaguely defined. To be clear, flexibility is a core tenet and strength of agile teams. Leaders should encourage teams to be creative and self-manage in delivering business outcomes.
However, when “agile leaders do not hold their teams to strict outcome measures,”³ there is a risk that company goals will not be reached. If a personal trainer does not know how to measure their athlete’s performance on agility exercises, it will be impossible to see their game improvement. Similarly, if leaders do not know how to measure their agile team’s outcomes, they will not see how agility helps their company perform.
Jim Highsmith, co-author of the Agile Manifesto and an expert in agile teams in the IT industry, states that being overzealous about metrics is a downfall of agile leadership. To combat this, he suggests measuring the value provided to customers.⁴ Agile teams struggle when they are too focused on measuring the immeasurable. This is a challenge that leaders must be aware of and actively combat.
The Agile Task
Agility is the ability to think and move quickly and easily. It is the key skill that allows soccer goalies to block shots and win games. Agile leadership and teams in a business setting allow companies to succeed—but only if their weaknesses are addressed. These weaknesses include ambiguous principles, varying structures, and leaders who struggle to create a psychologically safe environment and clear measures for agile teams.
As agile practices are sure to permeate businesses in the future, leaders should combat agile teams’ downfalls by clearly defining structure and principles, nurturing positive company culture, and outlining effective measures. If challenges are properly addressed, agile teams will be successful at winning the game.
Notes
- “Improving Team Performance and Team Engagement: Agile Ways of Working Can Help Nurture the Ideal Climate.” Human Resource Management International Digest 30, no. 6 (2022): 29–31.
https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-06-2022-0109 - Khanagha, Saeed, Henk W. Volberda, Andreas Alexiou, and Maria Carmela Annosi. “Mitigating the Dark Side of Agile Teams: Peer Pressure, Leaders’ Control, and the Innovative Output of Agile Teams.” Journal of Product Innovation Management 39, no. 3 (May 2022): 334–350.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12589 - Ray, Subrat Kumar Sundar. “Moving Towards Agile Leadership to Help Organizations Succeed.” IUP Journal of Soft Skills 17, no. 1 (March 2023): 5–17.
- “5 Signs Your Agile Practices Will Lead to Digital Disaster.” CIO (September 20, 2023).
- findcourses.com. “What Subject Is Your Top Learning and Development Priority?” Statista (May 5, 2022).
- World Economic Forum. “Skills Expected to Rise in Importance from 2023 to 2027.” Statista (April 30, 2023).