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Agile Transformations & Tokyo 2020: The Need To Celebrate Successes


Tokyo 2020 was a games filled with successes. Not just for Team GB, but for every nation that was able to send athletes to the competition. This has been one of the toughest games to reach, for many athletes, their training thrown off-tempo due to the event being postponed, and Paris is likely to be hard, too, with the four-year preparation window being cut short for the Tokyo athletes.


Many of us will have seen the games, and the athlete interviews during. Team GB’s amazing Lauren Williams’ interview after achieving the silver medal in women’s -67 kg Taekwondo is one of the interviews that lingers in my head. This young woman was immensely humbled by her experience, grateful to have achieved her place in the games, and emotional having won a medal in the games. She was praised by Lutalo Muhammad, who competed previously in Rio 2016, for the efforts she had made behind the scenes, that the rest of the nation wouldn’t have been privy to.


But, learning of the circumstances that impacted her journey to the games, made the silver even sweeter.


Many spectators of the Olympics do not care for silver or bronze medals, declaring that a silver medal means you are the first loser, but would you not rather have a medal to state you are the second best, or a bronze to say you came third, than come out of a competition with nothing. If you had achieved this feat, would you not be proud of the achievement?


It’s always about being reflective. Every success, every bout, every goal, every successful shot, is worth celebrating, because you could have missed.


Similarly, with an agile transformation; a significant change to make within your workforce, regardless of the number of staff working with you. You’ve made significant headway, just getting to this point. It doesn’t matter how this article finds you: whether you are simply looking at this process and how it may influence your organisation’s work, or you’re already agile, and are working to make sure you retain this attitude at work.


Just getting here is reward enough. Just like the Olympic Games; qualifying against hundreds of other amazing people, and being able to play your sport on the global stage, at the most prestigious competition for the “amateur” athletes (the ones that are not paid to play their sport), you’ve already made it, and every chance you get to compete at the games is a reward for your efforts. Everyone wants a gold medal, but, you’ve already succeeded by entering the games. Celebrate this.


Celebrate your firsts; first scrum, first value stream mapping session, your first agile release train, your first launch. Everything deserves to be celebrated when you are in this for the long haul. We all are. Agile project management, and the mindsets involved are something that has to be internalised, just like the mantras athletes use in training.


We’re all going for gold, but, just getting to this point is worth celebrating. Just as everything we achieve afterwards is.



Based in London, U.K., and founded in 2016 by Arvind Mishra The Agile Works (www.TheAgileWorks.com), is an up-and-coming recruitment and Agile consulting company. Arvind is a Certified SAFe SPC and regularly delivers both private and public SAFe certification workshops.


He is a design thinking expert, Sr. enterprise, portfolio Agile Coach with over a decade of experience working as an Agile coach in diverse industries such as banking, pharma, retail, auto, oil, gas, consulting and government.


The Agile Works; a small team of three strive to help shape the leadership's mind-set and values in readiness for their business transformation journey challenges. With Arvind at the helm, we strive to provide you with the agility tools to make your company that can thrive, and not just survive.


To book a consultation, or for any enquiries, you can contact Arvind via the following email address: arvind@theagileworks.comenquiries, you can contact Arvind via the following email address: arvind@theagileworks.com

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