Some of us loved playing games. Well, probably most of us. Especially in Chaos Taxi. So we all know what is Agility.
ability to move quickly and easily
ability to think and understand quickly
Was it really ever enough to achieve victory in a game? (Note: I am not talking about Amazon from Diablo II) The answer is: NO.
Now we know that we need a great mix of all the virtues (or call them attributes). With fine balance of the virtues, come better chance of positive results.
Let’s google ‘Strength’:
the quality or state of being physically strong
the capacity of an object or substance to withstand great force or pressure
synonyms: robustness, sturdiness, firmness, toughness, soundness, solidity, solidness, durability, stability;
We need that stuff also, right? Why did no one from Agile sect told us that? Sadly, that was our experience.
Concept of Inteligence will be covered in other opportunity. In this one, it is divide between Strength and Agility. Just look at Agility - “ability to think and understand quickly”, and see the Strength - “withstand great force or pressure, stability, firmness”. So in order not to overcomplicate the story, this article sums everything up through these two spheres.
We are of the opinion that Agility has been overestimated, and what we are trying to do is to give a new light to equilibrium of virtues, and/or the sole purpose of other virtues, which may prove better than Agility, or better that equilibrium.
I wanted to share a case in basketball. Let’s say our basketball player plays center, and does not have a very good jumping capability. There are two ways to improve that. The first one is to play more games, and give his best every jump. The second one is to go to the gym and do a bunch of leg excercises (bunch = huge number, but organized by a proffesional to achieve highest results in least time). Well, the second solution is one that will be chosen by the player’s trainer, BECAUSE IT GIVES BETTER RESULTS.
What we often do in Agile Methodology is that we knock on all the doors, and push on lot of the fronts. Yes, of course sometimes it is a good idea. But sometimes you just have to go to gym, spend time and lot of energy, and upgrade your weak spot.
Agile teaches us (how) to change directions, but it does not teach us how to give our best when we are on one direction. That is where Strength comes into play.
Let’s take a look what do authors of bestselling book Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth, advises us:
[…]The way this step gets most often messed up by founders is by keeping around distracting marketing efforts in other traction channels. For example, suppose you ran tests in three traction channels: search engine marketing, trade shows, and publicity. Search engine marketing was the most promising, and so you decide to focus on it and make it your core channel. However, your trade show and publicity tests were also successful, albeit much less so. There is a natural tendency to do more trade shows and publicity because you know they will somewhat work. This is a mistake. Search engine marketing was significantly better, and so you should spend all your efforts on this core channel because uncovering additional strategies and tactics within it will have a greater effect than using these secondary channels. They’re distracting.
The math is simple - bring your battle to the front on which you have the greatest chance to achieve best results with lowest resources. Choice, chances and resources may vary - so should your strategy. But your focus is not as unspendable, and not such a variable, so you should really consider puting all your effort on one front. Only after that, comes the agility to rotate and translate your integral focus, energy and other resources (please, humans are not resources, but do redirect them also) to the other (new) best direction. Don’t do that every day, it’s not interesting for your human resources.