The Power of an Agile Mindset was the topic Lizzy Morris presented at last years plenary during the Blacks in Government Conference. There’s a lot of information about an agile mindset. In fact, if you do a quick search on google using the query ‘what is an agile mindset?’ you’ll get more than 10,000 results. While these results define what an agile mindset is, we believe that there’s more to be written on its transformative effect and how it can change an entire nation one employee at a time.

This is what BeardedEagle co-founder, Lizzy Morris, imparted in a room of over 120 attendees at the Blacks In Government (BIG) Conference in New Orleans, LA. Her workshop, ‘Making Agility Work For You’ delivered a value-packed presentation designed for government professionals that emphasized the power of an agile mindset.

“Today, we were able to share this concept with people across governments. We had members from the CIA, we had people from the local government, people from the military government,” said Lizzy.

Agility is not a process, but a way of life

In one of her video reports on the BIG Conference, she touches on the effect of embracing an agile mindset in a government setting. Lizzy explained that “It can help you change, it helps them to see things differently, and helps them to respond to each other in a way that’s positive and drives value. It helps people to see that their talents, their abilities, and their personal innovations, the way they think can affect the way an organization will breathe, the way an organization can roll.”

An agile mindset does not only consider the skills to make a successful agile team but the capacity of each member to be willing to learn – even when you fail – and learning from failures to continuously improve and deliver on what the team is set to do. This is one of the reasons why adapting to change in the workplace quickly and efficiently is something that organizations should discuss more.

Agility in government is agility in life

In organizational structures like government entities where bureaucracy is common, agility is beneficial in a multitude of ways, including faster decision-making and higher quality of services.

Furthermore, Lizzy believes that if we all adapt an Agile mindset, we can achieve the true change that we all wish to happen. If everyone is willing to inspect and adapt against each other, which is one of the core principles of the agile methodology, each of us can create a truly remarkable nation.

Remember that it is the people that create culture, not the other way around. We can shape our environment if we want to.

But first, before we can create lasting impacts on a government level, we must all learn and implement agile in our daily lives because the true power of agility begins first with an agile mindset.

Over to you

Do you think our government sectors should become more agile? We would like to know your thoughts. Follow Lizzy Morris and the BeardedEagle team on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram.

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