This was a very interesting event; a story of collaboration between 2 rivals: Red Cross and World Vision Australia.

The two companies historically collaborate together specially in emergencies or when disaster happens around the world and this was a case study to see how they as rivals came about to work together and what were some of the lessons.

It is given that everyone is working to their strength however how can agile help teams to work better? In this case not teams inside same organisations but two organisation that are traditionally trying to get fund from individuals specially with such small amount allocated to charity in most of families.

When introducing agile, like introducing any new concept or change, there is going to be a lot of misconceptions around what is this about, is it going to work, is this even relevant to us? we can’t collaborate because no one is leading, does it mean we have to be in the same room? Hence it is very important to make sure “everyone gets it”. So where to start?

Mindset first. Tools later!

It is absolutely vital to change mindset first, to make sure whatever we are doing, and whatever this is, is a shared value and common goal among all team member. So how should we go about changing mindset in a team?

Tools only will be effective when people know for what purpose they should be used, when and how to use it. It is not surprising how many teams don’t know about their priority when they are asked what is the most important item they should be working on!

Reaction to agile. Obviously challenge of any organisation going through this phase: how to lead and manager and change to chain of command. The role of leaders will go through a transition from command and control to support and enable.

And document assumptions, verify, and measure

One of the great lessons was understanding collaboration doesn’t mean you need to/have to work with like-minded people. Value people with different opinion – most of the times they can bring a different perspective to the problem. Welcome ideas, make sure people feel safe to share what they think (psychological safety).

Agile should help organisation grow, and people to work more efficiently. Do not follow a framework because everyone says you have to! Try to under what is applicable to your setting. For example of the things happened as result of being agile was that marketing is now done in sprints, short cycles where metrics can be measured and adjusted.