About

Agile Connect

What is Agile Connect®?

Incubated during 2015 and formally initiated in 2016, Agile Connect® is a learning platform that encourages and supports the widespread adoption of effective Lean & Agile thinking and practices.

Similar to a good game, Agile Connect® is structured around four defining characteristics:

  • Clear goals: see Purpose, Vision, and Mission.
  • Clear and universal rules: see Universal Principles, Shared Values, Governance Model, and System Constraints.
  • Feedback systems (to track our efforts toward our goals): see Feedback Systems, Stats and Metrics.
  • Opt-in participation: everything we do at Agile Connect is on a voluntary basis, and all Community Developers know and willingly accept the goals, the rules and the feedback systems in place.

Purpose

In simple words, our purpose is to “inspire people and organizations to embrace a growth mindset”.

Vision

We envision “a world driven by learning organizations, “powered” by astonishing teams, built around motivated individuals”.

Mission

We “inspire people and organizations to achieve their full potential”, by:

  • Spreading Lean and Agile thinking and practices.
  • Nurturing people’s autonomy, mastery and purpose.
  • Applying complexity theory to solve complex challenges.

Universal Principles

Principles can be described as objective rules or timeless laws that are universal in nature, transcending cultures and individuals. As a platform for People and Teams to connect, share, and learn, we respect and follow the following principles:

    • Focus: each team will focus exclusively on its mission, either the development of a local ecosystem (e.g.: a city) or a strategic initiative (e.g.: a conference).
  • Transparency: each team will share its own agenda (roadmap) and conditions with all other teams, accompanied by the availability of all required information to enable collaboration, cooperation, and collective decision making on the organization level.
  • Trust: every team will rely on other teams’ actions to fulfill Agile Connect®’s Purpose, Vision, and Mission, effectively acting as a Trustor for all other Teams (the Trustees).
  • Autonomy: although open to external considerations, every team will make its own decisions and chart its own direction according to its pursuit of value, free from external control.
  • Alignment: all teams will comply with a set of commonly agreed constraints and will periodically review their arrangement of forces in relation to one another, in order to collectively achieve Agile Connect®’s Purpose, Vision, Mission, and the pursuit of common initiatives.

Shared Values

Values are collective beliefs people hold regarding specific issues or ideas, reflecting subjective views of the world, work, and life, that may change when the underlying circumstances, demands or needs change. All Agile Connect® Community Developers value:

  • Courage: the tenacity to work through issues and disagreements without compromising one’s own principles.
  • Empathy: the capacity to understand other people’s motivations, needs, and emotions more deeply.
  • Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
  • Resilience: the capacity to bounce back after a disturbance or interruption, adapting to changing conditions.
  • Pragmatism: the capacity to deal with multiple choices or unknowns in a sensible and realistic way, based on practical considerations.

Governance Model

The Agile Connect® platform has the following decision making and advisory bodies in place:

  • Our internal Community of Practice (CoP), a network of independent Lean & Agile Practitioners acting as Community Developers whose purpose is to develop the Lean & Agile Community of Interest (CoI) at large, our main Customer, develop and strengthen our organization, and connect and leverage the Ecosystem.
  • A network of local self-managed Accredited Teams (*), whose purpose is to develop the local Lean & Agile Communities.
  • A network of cross-territory self-managed Mission Teams, whose purpose is to develop high impact time-bounded initiatives.
  • The Consortium, a network of organizations that nurture our Purpose, align with our Vision, and support our Mission, and with whom we regularly partner (local meetups and other initiatives).
  • The Fellowship Council, a committee of invited members who share their wisdom with all of us.
  • The Stewardship Council, a committee made up of nominated CoP active members and a Consortium organization for legal purposes only.

(*) Currently: Aveiro, Braga, Lisbon and Porto (Portugal).

System Constraints

As of December 2017, the current Agile Connect® system constraints are:

  • All Accredited & Mission Teams will always use the official Agile Connect® branding (logo and graphics), either online or offline.
  • All Accredited & Mission Teams will always use the official Agile Connect® social media channels:
  • All Accredited & Mission Teams and all their members, will always use the official Agile Connect® online chat communication service (currently Ryver.com, join us!).
  • All Accredited Teams will be responsible for funding their own community events.
  • All Accredited Teams will meet online once per month to share and learn with each other (each team will appoint its representative on a monthly basis).
  • All Accredited Teams will always use the official Agile Connect® online event platform to host and organize their local Lean & Agile meetups (currently Meetup.com):
  • All Community Developers will always use the their official Agile Connect® agileconnect.org email addresses on all institutional communications (currently G Suite).
  • All Community Developers will always use the official Agile Connect® online file storage service (currently G Suite).
  • All Community Developers will always use the official Agile Connect® online calendar service (currently G Suite).

Strategic Initiatives

In 2017, the Agile Connect® strategic initiatives were:

  • Strengthen the Lean and Agile Community.
  • Organically grow our network of local Accredited Teams.
  • Collaborate with all organizations that align with our vision.

In 2016, the Agile Connect® strategic initiatives were: