Agile Results for 2016

Article
01/19/2016

Agile Results is the personal productivity system for high-performance.

Agile Results is a “whole person” approach to personal productivity. It combines proven practices for mind, body, and emotions. It helps you realize your potential the agile way. Best of all, it helps you make the most of what you’ve got to achieve higher levels of performance with less time, less effort, and more impact.

Agile Results helps you achieve rapid results by focusing on outcomes over activities, spending more time in your strengths, focusing on high-value activities, and using your best energy for your best results.

If you want to use Agile Results, it’s simple. I’ll show you how to get started, right, here, right now. If you already know Agile Results, then this will simply be a refresher.

Write Three Things Down

The way to get started with Agile Results is simple. Write three things down that you want to achieve today. Just ask yourself, “What are your Three Wins that you want to achieve today?”

For me, today, I want to achieve the following:

I want to get agreement on a shared model across a few of our teams.
I want to create a prototype for business model innovation.
I want to create a distilled view of CEO concerns for a Mobile-First, Cloud-First world.

In my mind, I might just remember: shared model, business model innovation, and CEO. I’ll be focused on the outcomes, which are effectively agreement on a model, innovation in business models for a Mobile-First, Cloud-First world, and a clear representation of top CEO pains, needs, and desired outcomes.

Even if I throw away what I write down, or lose it, the value is in the brief moment I spent to prioritize and visualize the results that I want to achieve.

This little vision will stick with me as a guide throughout my day.

Think in Three Wins

Writing these three items down, helps me focus. It helps me prioritize based on value. It also helps me create a simple vision for my day.

Plus, thinking in Three Wins adds the fun factor.

And, better yet, if somebody asks me tomorrow what my Three Wins were for yesterday, I should be able to tell a story that goes like this: I created rapport and a shared view with our partner teams, I created a working information model for business model innovation for a mobile-first cloud-first world, and I created a simplified view of the key priorities for CEOs in a Mobile-First, Cloud-First world.

When you can articulate the value you create, to yourself and others, it helps provide a sense of progress, and a story of impact. Progress is actually one of the keys to workplace happiness, and even happiness in life.

In a very pragmatic way, by practicing your Three Wins, you are practicing how to identify and create value. You are learning what is actually valued, by yourself and others, by the system that you are in.

And value is the ultimate short-cut. Once you know what value is, you can shave off a lot of waste.

The big idea here is that it’s not your laundry list of To-Dos, activities, and reminders -- it’s your Three Wins or Three Outcomes or Three Results.

Use Your Best Energy for Your Best Results

Some people wonder why only Three Wins? There is a lot of science behind the Rule of 3, but I find it better to look at how the Rule of 3 has stood the test of time. The military uses it. Marketing uses it. You probably find yourself using it when you chunk things up into threes.

But don’t I have a bazillion things to do?

Yes. But can I do a bazillion things today? No. But what I can do is spend my best energy, on the best things, my best way.

That’s the best I can do.

But that’s actually a lot. When you focus on high-value outcomes and you really focus your time, attention, and energy on those high-value outcomes, you achieve a lot. And you learn a lot.

Will I get distracted? Sure. But I’ll use my Three Wins to get back on track.

Will I get randomized and will new things land on my plate? Of course, it’s the real-world. But I have Three Wins top of mind that I can prioritize against. I can see if I’m trading up for higher-value, higher-priorities, or if I’m simply getting randomized and focusing on lower-value distractions.

Will I still have a laundry list of To-Do items? I will. But, at the top of that list, I’ll have Three Wins that are my “tests for success” for the day, that I can keep going back to, and that will help me prioritize my list of actions, reminders, and To-Dos.

20-Minute Sprints

I’ll use 20-Minute Sprints to achieve most of my results. It will help me make meaningful progress on things, keep a fast pace, stay engaged with what I’m working on, and to use my best energy.

Whether it’s an ultradian rhythms, or just a natural breaking point, 20-Minute Sprints help with focus.

We aren’t very good at focusing if we need to focus “until we are done.” But we are a lot better at focusing if we have a finish line in site. Plus, with what I’m learning about vision, I wonder if spending more than 20-Minutes is where we start to fatigue our eye muscles, and don’t even know it.

Note that I primarily talk about 20-Minute Sprints as timeboxing, after all, that’s what it is, but I think it’s more helpful to use a specific number. I remember that 40-Hour Work Week was a good practice from Extreme Programming before it became Sustainable Pace. Once it became Sustainable Pace, then teams started doing the 70 or 80 hour work week, which is not only ineffective, it does more harm than good.

Net net – start with 20-Minute Sprints. If you find another timebox works better for you, than by all means use it, but there does seem to be something special about 20-Minute Sprints for paving your work through work.

If you’re wondering, what if you can’t complete your task in a 20-Minute Sprint? You do another sprint.

All the 20-Minute Sprint does is give you a simple timebox to focus and prioritize your time, attention, and energy, as well as to remind you to take brain breaks. And, the 20-Minute deadline also helps you sustain a faster pace (more like a “sprint” vs. a “job” or “walk”).