There’s a theme you might spot in my earlier blogs on psychological safety and growth mindset. Both concepts involve tolerating the discomfort of risk taking. The risks might be interpersonal ones, or they might be about trying something in the name of learning, but both require you to stick with things that might feel a bit icky. That’s why my third barrier to agile is an inability to tolerate discomfort.

That’s not to say that agile is all doom and gloom or inherently unpleasant. One of the big draws of agile for me is that it helps you collaborate more closely with others, which should make work more enjoyable. But in order to get there, you need to push through some discomfort.

Trying new things is uncomfortable. So is continually experimenting and questioning your assumptions. So is giving and receiving feedback. So is dealing with uncertainty. But all of these are worthwhile, and all of these are necessary to work in an agile way.

If you’re a leader, one of the most uncomfortable things about agile might be giving up some of your power. A core agile principle is that decisions should be made by those closest to the work, and that isn’t necessarily you! Of course, it can be very freeing not to be expected to have the answers to everything all the time, but if you’ve defaulted to that dynamic for a long time, agile can take some getting used to.

How to get better at tolerating discomfort

Firstly, I think it’s helpful to acknowledge when something is uncomfortable. It feels better personally when you can say that something is stretching you out of your comfort zone. You’ll also often find that sharing about your discomfort has social benefits. People are more likely to know you might need a bit of support, or grace whilst you work out the kinks with something.

We like people who can be appropriately vulnerable! The people you work with are only human, after all. Being open and honest about your discomfort can strengthen relationships.

Even just acknowledging the discomfort internally is helpful. If we don’t recognise what’s going on with us, often it plays out in unexpected ways, like avoidance or irritability. Saying to yourself that you are feeling apprehensive, or stretched, or whatever it might be, means that you can be more thoughtful about your behaviour.

It’s much easier to tolerate discomfort in psychologically safe environments, so anything you can do to build a culture where it is ok to take risks helps. Leaders in particular can do a lot by modelling feedback and learning, sharing where they have got things wrong or otherwise found something difficult.

Your framing also matters. See setbacks as learning opportunities, not failures. If you look back over your history, you’ll probably realise that the times you grew the most were also the times which felt most unsettling. Keep that in mind as you consider the things that are uncomfortable in the present.

My last piece of advice is to set a time limit. It’s much easier to endure something if it’s only for a limited period of time. Of course, by the end of that you might find that you are no longer uncomfortable – you’ve got used to whatever it was you were previously tolerating, and might even have moved on to enjoying it. But sometimes we try things that aren’t right for us. Make sure you give things a decent try, but also give yourself permission to move on if it still isn’t working in a few months time.

Next week, we’ll look at how resistance from leaders can be a barrier to agile, and how to overcome it. Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly roundup of posts.