Last week, I spoke at a panel discussion webinar with Agile Middle East, talking about navigating instability and conflict with agility. We discussed our shared experience of the last few weeks working here in the UAE.
One thing really struck me: the value of information sharing.
The obvious reason first. In times of real uncertainty (the anxiety-inducing kind), people need to know what’s happening. Not reassurance. Just here’s what we know, here’s what we don’t. That itself is stabilising.
The less obvious reason is structural. We talk a lot about delegated decision-making in agile. But delegation only works on two pillars: competence and context. If your people have the competence (and we assume they do), then your job is to give them context. Radical, continuous, almost uncomfortable levels of information sharing. Without it, capable people freeze. Not because they lack skill, but because they lack visibility.
But there is another quieter benefit. People can only feel safe in uncertainty if they trust you to tell them what’s happening, even when it’s uncomfortable. That trust isn’t built in a crisis. It’s the product of every conversation you had before it.
Crisis reveals what was already there. The organisations that handled this well weren’t doing anything new. They were just continuing to do what they’d always done.