The Agility Collective

The inner workings of a rather different consulting company

Recruitment - how we grow

Recruitment is actually a misnomer, as we don’t actively ‘recruit’. What we do is have “conversations” with people who may ‘fit’. People with a deep appreciation or understanding of what we are trying to achieve, and fresh ideas on how we can continue to grow.

How do we engage consultants?

Awesome people required! We recognise that business agility is a growing field, so finding people with full end-to-end experience are thin on the ground …or may not even exist at all. But we are mature operators, so have a pretty good idea of “who’s” out there. In all likelihood if you are actively doing GREAT stuff …we probably already know about you and may contact you.

If you haven’t been contacted yet, this may just mean we have not crossed paths, so if you think you fit what we are looking for, and the collective fits you, please contact us.

Acquire awesome people, or don’t acquire at all

Worth repeating: acquire awesome people, or don’t acquire at all! That’s what makes our model work.

Who gets to join

There are two major streams of people that fit our profile. 1) Those coming from the IT field directly. Senior coaches and trainers of capital ‘A’ Agile practices. They are seasoned, in that they often have their own businesses and probably have been operating successfully for a number of years. However, many of the people coming from this stream have limited ability to extend the conversation of agility outside the IT realm, in other words difficulty communicating mindset and practice outside of a dev/ops environment. 2) The second stream, and the one we are actively developing, consists of people who are using lean and systems-thinking principles outside of IT. Especially in areas like HR and Finance, or more generally in management or change. In many cases these people may not have active experience in agile in a ‘transformational sense’ but have an innate understanding of the principles involved, and a strong desire to influence change.

In many cases the people we speak to are already recognised as leaders in specialist areas, and running their own business. Many have also found that the’ve hit a glass ceiling in what their practice can achieve. That being part of something bigger will help them grow both professionally and personally. They recognise that being part of a collective extents their reach and influence, in building new business, and allows them to focus on delivery and less time in building the practice.

A main aim of the collective is to support the continued development of our members. For instance, to actively encourage and support members in continuing to develop their individual thought-leader profile and brand. We do not see this as a conflict. In saying this, another aim (or kpi of the collective) is that members also see and understand the benefit of working to build the collective, and equally committed in building collectives brand. So, some balance of priorities may be necessary.

The on-boarding process.

If we haven’t worked with you before, then the first step starts with you. Make sure you read and fully understand 1) our principles and DNA of how we operate, and 2) what we are trying to achieve (you can get this from the website). For many people, it’s obvious our model won’t work, and little time is wasted. It should only take about 15min to work this out.

The next step starts as a conversation, usually with a founding member, (who acts as a puller, similar to the bun holder in our bun protocol.) If this goes well, we will invite, or ask your permission …to “continue the conversation”. This is code for: it looks like we have good alignment.

We don’t like to use the word trial but it’s kinda a trial in that you get a better sense of how we work and what’s expected of you, …and we get a better sense of how you operate and the value you are bringing. All going well, this conversation would include us giving you access to behind the scenes activity, trello boards, zoom meeting etc. This way we are all comfortable with where things are going.

The formal process follows our democratic principles

  1. Someone at the Collective is willing to be a “puller” for the candidate. That’s our internal term for the person “pulling” an initiative and making sure things move forward, and that the candidate is well-treated. Similar to the bun holder in our bun protocol.
  2. At least one us has worked with the candidate before. We want someone to say “Hey, I’ve worked with her before, she’s awesome! We’d be IDIOTS not to let her join!” or we have gone through the ‘conversation” section above.
  3. No one has vetoed the candidate.

This considerably limits the number of applicants.

If accepted …Welcome! You’ll need to sign our team contract, and create your own personal company (if you don’t already have one). Formally you’ll be employed by your company, not ‘the collective’. We’ll help you get started.

Congrats, you are now your own manager! Be nice.

We will also go for dinner at a nice restaurant, setup your email account and all that jazz, like most other companies. And we’ll proudly display you on our site of course!

Other things

Other things that we value and we may use to help determine who to accept and reject (but don’t always require):

  • The candidate complements us somehow, for example with new skills or perspectives that we lack. He/she will make us feel like newbies in some area!
  • The candidate has lots of energy and ideas, and won’t be shy to challenge the status quo.
  • The candidate is well known and has a strong reputation in the industry.
  • Shares our values. (well this one is more of a requirement.. but it’s more of a springboard for discussion, and not an easy black and white answer)

Tips to candidates: Inspire us! Show us your skills, technical and social! Present something new and exciting at one of our events, or join us for a hack summit. Prepare for lots of intense discussions, critique and laughter – we’re a merry bunch, but we need to be convinced you are good at what you do. Why? Because we want to learn from you, and we want the clients to rave over how awesome you are. We are all investing much time spent building up a great reputation, and we want you to make it even better!

Don’t steal people from clients!

One golden rule as a consultant is to never ever hire a co-worker from a client. Managers obviously don’t want consultants to steal their employees, so we won’t recruit a candidate until after both the candidate and the consultant have left the place where they worked together. Sometimes years after.

We are in no hurry to grow. An awesome person is worth waiting for.

What kind of people don’t fit at our model?

People who want stability don’t fit. You won’t have stable working hours and a fixed desk. You won’t even get a fixed salary - in fact, it’s the other way around - you pay a fee (but keep most of what you earn). See the economic model. So when you don’t have a client, you bleed money every month! On the other hand, when you do have a client, you earn more than what any company would pay you in salary. So it’s up to you to buffer cash and manage risk.

This kind of model obviously doesn’t fit everyone.

What kind of people do fit here?

Most people who end up at the Collective were previously independent consultants (or were heading in that direction). Typical personality traits:

  • Self-confident - they know that they are highly skilled and in high demand.
  • Adventurous - a few months without an assignment isn’t the end of the world, it’s an opportunity to play around and learn new stuff!
  • Social - they like to maintain a strong network and collaborate with people. Some of us are introverts, but still kind of social)
  • Curious - want to learn new things, every day. Love geeking out better ways of doing things, or new techniques and technologies, processes, etc.
  • Generous - like to share what they learn, not primarily for profit but because it’s fun and rewarding in itself.
  • Responsible - they’re used to taking responsibility for their own goals and actions, and don’t wait for others to tell them what to do or solve their problems.

Of course, not everyone here has all these traits. But this is typically the type of person who is attracted to us.