Embracing the agile mindset
As COVID-19 wreaks havoc on our lives and livelihoods, many of us are beginning to consider what our careers might look like in the future.
We all like to think we’re adaptable and resilient but how do we decide if it’s time to keep going or change direction? How do we accept that we might have invested significant time and money into personal and career goals that no longer serve us?
To answer these questions, Elise Stevens has launched her rebranded podcast Future-Proof Your Career. In this first episode, she speaks with product development expert Johanna Rothman about the agile mindset and why it’s so important as we all try to bring an uncertain future into focus.
Points raised in this podcast:
- The agile mindset is about being able to adapt, being resilient, seeking regular feedback and regularly adjusting goals.
- It’s not enough to simply use the language of the agile mindset, it’s important to instil it in your personal conduct and organisational culture – how people treat each other and what behaviour gets rewarded.
- The agile mindset considers outcomes not just output. What benefit is being derived from the effort?
- Are you stuck in a career rut? If you’ve given it your best shot but not seen results, it’s important to ask if the outcome you’re working towards still serves you.
- Consider how often you reassess your career goals. Once a year is probably not enough.
- Be mindful of sunk cost fallacy, when we work hard towards a futile goal to honour what we’ve already invested.
- Break big goals down into smaller pieces. If you have to do it all at once you may not do it at all. Remember, the hardest part is getting started.
About Johanna:
Johanna Rothman, known as the ‘Pragmatic Manager’, offers frank advice for your tough problems. She helps leaders and teams do reasonable things that work. Equipped with that knowledge, they can then decide how to adapt their product development.
With her trademark practicality and humour, Johanna is the author of 18 books about many aspects of product development. In addition to articles and columns on various websites, Johanna writes the Managing Product Development blog on her website, jrothman.com, as well as a personal blog on createadaptablelife.com.
You can connect with Johanna on LinkedIn.