Four Agile values, grounded in service, intent, teamwork and adaptation.
The Agile Manifesto was written for software development, but its values reach far beyond software. During my military career I saw the same ideas practised in environments where information changed quickly, responsibility was real and the outcome mattered.
Military Agility is not about making business sound like battle. It is about examining what disciplined teams already know: intent matters, people make systems work, useful action beats perfect paperwork, collaboration carries responsibility and plans must change when reality does.
Make a new decision with new information.
The four values
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working solutions over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
The stories in this series come from mission planning, a communications failure in East Timor, officer training and basic training at Kapooka. Each one shows the value in practice—not as a slogan, but as a decision made under real conditions.
Read the series
01Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Why mission intent, conversation and trust allow trained people to use process without becoming trapped by it.
Working solutions over comprehensive documentation
A communications failure in East Timor and the decision to restore capability before completing perfect paperwork.
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
At Officer Training School, responsibility for the outcome could not be handed off with the work.
Responding to change over following a plan
What a deliberately disrupted routine at Kapooka taught recruits about resilience and adaptation.