I recently came across a definition of resilience that moved me.
The ability to transform hardship to experience.
That is what agility is truly about.
We learn from our failures.
We pick ourselves up, and try again with new information. We seek new skills and new techniques to try a different angle.
We rise to the occasion.
Even if this is our first time in the Scrum Master role. Even if what we need to do is not in our job description, and we haven’t been formally trained.
We swarm problems as a team.
The experience may be difficult and stressful, but we come out of it as a stronger team. We have deepened trust and strengthened commitment.
We know that as a team we can solve any problem and survive any challenge. Because we take imperfect action, and adapt as we learn from each step.
We summon the courage to admit we need to change direction.
And we do it as early as possible to enable this new experience to inform our next steps.
We know that we cannot predict the future.
We cannot control all of the variables. We don’t know what we don’t know. So we actively seek new information about what is happening around us and sense what may be coming.
We have feedback loops, opportunities to inspect and adapt. We do our best with what we have, committing to shared values and principles and our team agreements.
We make mistakes.
We screw up. We hurt people's feelings. We apologize and make it right.
We remember that we are human, and we strive to form the bonds of trust that enable us to keep moving forward with positivity and grace.
We need resilience at all levels and in all areas of organizations.
What if you knew that you can navigate anything that life throws at you?
What if your team knew that together they can do amazing things and thrive in difficult situations?
What if your organization knew that it was powered by resilient people and resilient teams?
How would your organization respond differently during hardship? Would they trust people? Would they give them the information, the power, and the flexibility to turn every moment of hardship into an experience-based growth machine?
