What’s your Passion #37 – Modern Agile: Safety

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Make Safety a Prerequisite … using the Flow Leadership Framework!

This is the third of a 4-part series (the first two parts were written with my brother Ted while he was still alive, this one and the next one are my thoughts) that describes how the Flow Leadership Framework maps to Modern Agile and vice versa.

So far we’ve looked at:

Today we’ll look at how the Flow Leadership Framework already makes safety a prerequisite (we built that in from the very start of our journey).

Modern Agile
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Modern Agile defines safety in the following way:

  • “Safety is both a basic human need and a key to unlocking high performance. We actively make safety a prerequisite by establishing safety before engaging in any hazardous work. We protect people’s time, information, reputation, money, health and relationships. And we endeavor to make our collaborations, products and services resilient and safe.”

In Flow we inspire and motivate the individual using the Spiritual (the individual’s Vision), Mental, Physical, and Social lenses:

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Included in “Spirit” are emotions and included in “Physical” are finances. Both emotions and finances are manifestations of the above lenses. If a person is out of balance (or does not feel safe) in any of these areas, then they will not be able to attain a state of sustainable, personal Flow.

But, safety is only the beginning. It is built on trust.

Beyond trust and safety is stark raving loyalty.

In What’s your Passion #33 – Loyalty Bob Geist and I share an example of a team that achieved stark raving loyalty. It was stunning and the results of that assignment speak for themself.

Every executive wants it.

Few are willing to invest what it really takes to achieve it. It’s simple, but simple is seldom easy. In this post I will revisit some of the ancient wisdom I wrote about in Nehemiah Effect.

If you do not know one of your team member’s Vision, you’ll want to find out. What’s their “Why?” What is the higher purpose for which they are working? If they don’t have one, why not? Sometimes, people just need a job. But, working for a paycheck is a long way away from the pursuit of personal excellence. And, this probably helps explain the dismal engagement numbers for both the US and Global employee surveys that Gallup does on a regular basis.

If you are able to align all of your team member’s visions with the team Vision, then you have just taken the first, very important step that will help your teams become loyal to each other.

The other thing you need to do in parallel is to get everyone on the same page around the team, product and/or organization’s Vision is to get everyone speaking the same language:

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If you have people speaking multiple languages like IT, Tech, Business, Management, Leadership, etc., then you will be experiencing a modern version of the Tower of Babel (where the most fantastic project ever undertaken was stopped in its tracks when the languages became confused and people simply couldn’t understand each other). There is some incredibly deep and stunning wisdom contained in that story that are amazing foundational Truths.

If you get everyone speaking the same language, then creating one mind (stark raving loyalty) and one plan for the team becomes a little more simple. Without one Language, one Mind and one Plan, achieving one Vision will be nearly impossible. Sure, your organization may limp along for awhile, but its long-term prospects won’t be very bright.

Want loyalty? You can start right now, even today. Let’s chat!


For those that are not familiar with the Flow Leadership Framework, it is what’s next for businesses and organizations that are ready to succeed regardless of the methods, frameworks or management tools that they use throughout their enterprise.

Are you ‘in the zone’ of optimal performance right now as a person, team or enterprise? Did you get there by accident or by focused intentional acts?

“Flow” gives you the tools and practices needed to create and maintain an optimal state of high performance as an individual, team or organization.

Flow turbocharges “business agile” leadership.


PS Here are the associated links to this blog post for:

#culture #scrum #agile #pmi #pmp #kanban #lean #flow #scaledagile #transformation #change #transform