Agile and lean development for large scale social change?

What do you gain from applying agile to collective action efforts for social change?


This is the question that the Stakeholder Alignment Collaborative raised in the current issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

They explore the idea of a Minimum Viable Consortia (MVC), a new term that parallels the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) from agile software development.

“MVCs are consortia having the minimum necessary structure and processes needed to generate positive early results, together with the ability to adjust and adapt as needed”.

Like other agile approaches, these consortia are:

📌Driven by a mission that is aligned with each organization but also recognizes potential conflicting interests;

📌Comprised of crossfunctional teams across participating organizations;

📌Structured with minimal formalities and flexible processes;

📌Representative of a critical formational stage of development which creates the foundation upon which further growth can happen;

📌Iterative, with design, experimentation, trying out with stakeholders and learning;
Designed for rapid adjustments in a dynamic environment;

📌Demonstrations of early success with stakeholder buy in.

🔔Now You: Do you think of your work as Agile or Structured?

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