Show Up and Be Agile!

Have you heard the semi-famous quote widely attributed to Woody Allen? “80% of success is showing up.” It’s good advice for everyone on your project team.

Let’s first define “showing up”. A physical appearance at the office is not enough. In fact in today’s virtual world, a physical appearance may not matter at all. What really matters is having your head in the game.

You need to be committed to the effort both mentally and emotionally. In other words, you must be fully engaged. If you can do that — every day — you are 80% of the way to a successful outcome.

Being engaged means being immersed in the process and tools used by the team. Making an appearance at the office and spending the day chatting with friends and shopping online is not engaged or committed.

So, how do you determine if each member of the team is showing up? Ask a few critical questions.

  • Does each team member understand the key goals of the project?
  • Does each person understand what he needs to do and why?
  • Is each member committed to meeting personal and team goals and objectives?

Getting yourself and everyone else on the team to show up each day is not easy. There are far too many distractions making it easy to lose focus. It takes constant vigilance to keep a team showing up day after day until the project is done.

Want to be more agile? Show up!

Updated: December 31, 2010 — 5:16 pm