Episode 208 – Rigidity

You want to help your company be more agile, so you create all of these extraordinary processes and guides, and then you go to your next project and find none of it works? How can this be?

When we talk about impediments to flow, we don’t talk about the notion of rigidity. The only time things are rigid is pretty much when they’re dead. That’s when we become stiff, brittle and breakable. In life, we are supple, flexible and fluid. And isn’t that what the word agility implies?

So how does rigidity impede flow? The temptation is to believe that firm processes create the opportunity to move faster. But I think there’s a minor distinction that we miss when we overthink all of this stuff. Routines are good because they encourage discipline, and discipline work can be a fundamental part of the flow. Having well engrained habits can also help us with flow.

But we bump into trouble when our processes are so rigid that they impede creativity and flexibility. When we only permit ourselves to think in a small number of ways, being rigid isn’t really about habits and discipline anymore; it’s about stubbornness and narrow vision.

Think of a piano player….or think of typing at your keyboard, for that matter. If an artist wishes to be fluid, graceful, their hands cannot be stiff and tight. They must be relaxed, accepting, confident, and free.

Rigidity also prohibits the free flow of new ideas when we are stiff and clinging to certainty, clinging to tradition, and clinging to process. It’ll be nearly impossible for new expressions, new attachments, and new connections to grow. When we are rigid, we resist change. We cannot see how a different way could work, even if it is radically different from everything we thought we knew.

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