3months Agile Consulting Blog

In the Western society the practice of yoga has become more and more a synonym for agility. As a non-practitioner one is inclined to believe that yoga is just a fancy name for stretching - creating agility through bending in all directions. As a practitioner you learn quickly that your body will only take you as far as your mind is willing or able to. Yoga challenges your body and mind.

Open your mind and the body will follow

The same is true for adopting agile in your organization. Don’t make the mistake thinking that implementing some of the so-called agile practices will make your organization agile overnight. Just like in yoga you will have to fight against limitations and blockages if you concentrate your efforts purely on physical aspects - or in this case on practices and processes. Yes, you will see some progress initially but you will soon hit a wall and progress will become stagnant.

This series is an attempt to apply ancient knowledge (after all the yoga tradition is more than 2,000 years old) to a question close to the heart of many people and organizations right now - the ones that have recognized that they have to become more agile - more adaptive - to the ever-changing marketplace: Just how do we do that?

In the tradition of yoga teachings I will focus on the five techniques expressing the five elements Space, Earth, Water, Fire and Air - Drushti, Asana, Vinyasa, Bandhas and Pranayama. In yoga these five techniques are considered to be facets of a single diamond - while they are five from the outside they are one from the inside. Together they create an energetic model of the full potential of life. Each one is equally important and supportive of the others - therefore improvements in one area will immediately impact the others and open up room for growth in these areas.

So without further ado let me take you on a journey to agile enlightenment

The Agile Yoga

1. The Agile Yoga
2. The Agile Drushti
3. Intermezzo - The art of retrospectives
4. The Agile Asana
5. The Agile Vinyasa (coming soon)
6. The Agile Bandhas (coming soon)
7. The Agile Pranayama (coming soon)

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 9th, 2007 at 9:24 pm and is filed under agile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.