The question that serves as the title of this text arose as we read the 5th edition of the Raízes Book Club. Throughout our meetings, we carefully discussed our experiences with the projects and the way we organize ourselves, seeking to understand how agile methods could help us work more effectively.
Since 2023, the club has been bringing together members of the Raízes community to discuss readings chosen by the group. We started with Teaching Community, by bell hooks, and then we discussed Reinventing Organizations, by Frederic Laloux. We also dedicated sessions to The Falling Sky, by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert, and to The Earth Gives, The Earth Wants, by Nego Bispo, featuring discussions on ways of life in these territories and our relationship with the knowledge of those who inhabit them. Previous readings were revisited in this issue, especially as we reflected on the autonomy of the teams and communities with which we work.
One of the insights most valued by the group was the realization that agility must make sense for each specific activity. Recurring administrative processes, for example, have different requirements than those of a project under development, in which we need to test a proposal and monitor its results to decide how to proceed. This distinction helped us take a more discerning approach to adopting methods and to what we hope to achieve with them.
Another insight sparked some good conversations: agility can be understood as the ability to learn quickly from experience.
The switch to new task management tools at Raízes itself served as an example of this learning process, in which day-to-day use allows us to assess what works and recognize when it’s worth making a change.
For this to happen, there must be a willingness to discuss difficulties and reconsider decisions. We thus return to a discussion already present in the reading of Reinventing Organizations: a team’s culture is built on the way people participate and are treated, even when something goes wrong.
The possibility of better sharing the workload was another aspect that piqued our interest. Collaboration can reduce individual workloads and ensure that knowledge remains available to the team, even when someone is absent. When applying this concept to our situation, we realized that a small team with specialized roles needs clarity on how to distribute responsibilities. Collaboration requires time and coordination, especially to prevent the busiest team members from ending up with even more tasks.
Agility in the Context of a Social Enterprise
The examples of large companies presented in the book Agile the Right Way prompted some reflection from the group. At Raízes, we work with those who fund the projects and with the people who participate in them in the local communities, whose needs may differ from the initial expectations of those who hire us. Therefore, evaluating a project delivery involves considering what it means for the community.
This conversation led us to the assessment, a process in which we focus on listening to and understanding the local reality to guide the design of a project. We recognize how this practice helps us discuss proposals that arrive already defined and work with the people involved to develop solutions that are better suited to the context.
We also take into account the constraints imposed by approval deadlines and clients’ contractual requirements. A team may have the autonomy to organize its work but still depend on external decisions to move forward. We discuss how to factor these conditions into our planning, preparing as much as possible in advance and minimizing the strain caused by changes in pace.
What are we going to take from here?
The reading on agile methods had some caveats—especially given the gap between some of the corporate examples and the day-to-day reality of a social enterprise—but it offered good opportunities to examine our own practices. We came away from the discussions with concrete ideas to discuss as a team, such as how to better organize meetings and share lessons learned from projects. It’s one of the reasons we continue to meet to read together: one person’s experience often helps another notice something that had previously gone unnoticed.
Do you use agile methods in your work? Tell us about your experience.
