Agile leaders often need to work through others to amplify their impact and drive organizational change.

Agile leaders are vital in driving organizational change and making a meaningful impact. Building a "volunteer army" of motivated individuals and teams is one way to achieve this goal. To be effective, leaders must also create conditions for this volunteer army to become self-organizing and intrinsically motivated through alignment.

There are three levers that leaders can use to achieve alignment, according to Patty Beach:

🧭 Setting direction:

Agreeing on the mission, vision, values, strategy, and goals of the organization or team. This helps to ensure that everyone is working towards the same objectives.

⏰ Creating the clock:

Agreeing on systems, processes, and the cadence for individuals and teams to coordinate their work. This helps to ensure that everyone knows how to work together in the most effective way and at a regular pace.

✊ Empowering people:

Agreeing on roles and responsibilities and creating a workplace culture where everyone can thrive. This helps ensure that everyone is clear on what they need to do and feels supported.

Note that each of these three levers involves "agreement." In this context, agreement means that alignment is not imposed on individuals or teams but is a collective activity that enhances ownership and consent.