Agility – What Does It Mean And Why Should You Care
Changes brought by digital technologies and globalization of markets has forced businesses to adapt or be swept aside. “Disruptor” companies have rewritten the rules and became a game changer in major industries such as entertainment, transportation, and hospitality, transforming customer relationships in many ways.
The term “agility” has become more ambiguous, recently often used as a synonym for general attributes like speed or adaptability. Business leaders need to consider how their organizational culture, values, mindset encourage employees to act in ways that support agility, and how they should apply the concept to operational strategies for serving existing customers while at the same time attracting new ones.
Agility in the workplace
In operational terms, the concept can be defined as an employee’s ability and capacity to gather and disseminate information about changes in the environment, and their responsiveness and speed to that information. Strategically this combination of speed and data-driven innovation is important for many businesses to maintain a competitive edge.
A recent study of employees by Gallup in France, Germany, Spain and the UK provides a look at how employees views their organizations’ capacity for agility defining agility as such; (The Real Future of work Gallup 2018, the Agility issue)
- In my company, we have the right mindset to respond quickly to business needs
- In my company, we have the right tools and processes to respond quickly to business needs.
The path of agility breaks down into three parts:
- Speed and Efficiency
- Speed of decision making
- Technology accelerators
- Simplicity focus
- Empowered and trusted
- Freedom to Experiment
- Openness to risk
- Encouraged innovation
- Communication and Collaboration
- Interdepartmental cooperation
- Constant knowledge sharing
Learn to be wrong, effective leaders should have the confidence to act amid uncertain conditions, but also the humility to recognize what they don’t know and openness to being wrong. Establishing a culture that continues to experiment and data-drive decision making means recognizing that no one will get all the answers, no matter how smart, experienced or senior they are. For many leaders it’s a big ask, as we value a sense of mastery, and control over our environment. Agile businesses need leaders who can resist that tendency and embrace the fact they do not need to know all the answers. These leaders will provide a big picture vision and a sense of direction, but look to customers, front-line employees and the overall changing environment to provide answers on how to best implement that vision on a day-to-day basis.
Matrixed does not equal “agile”. Matrix structures may make it harder for organizations to maintain clear expectations and line of accountability based on a 2016 analysis by Gallup. Agile organizations are driven by a customer-centric culture. Customer-centricity is almost always the foundational cultural component for agile companies. In fact, they are most often the reasons businesses seek to become more agile in the first place. Placing data on what customers value at the centre of all business processes helps to break down an organization’s individual silos and changes the way employees think, communicate, and act. It’s a priority that pervades the organizations whether the employees interact with external or internal customers within different roles and departments.
Managing an agile organization for many businesses, requires a significant change in how leaders and managers promote sustainable success. This involves a philosophical and functional shift from performance management to performance development, that in turn requires a cultural change in mangers orientation toward team members from bosses to coaches. It’s a transformation that facilitates an organizations ability to keep up with changing business needs in two key areas:
- Coordinating among teams; shift from rigid hierarchical structures to more dynamic networks of interlocking teams, team leads become crucial connecting points. Fulfilling that requires managers to communicate frequently with employees about their strengths and developmental pursuits
- Maintaining continuous learning; an organization is only as adaptable as its members. To their workforces are versatile and innovative in the face of unpredictable challenges, managers should help their teams chart a course of ongoing learning and development. Not only does this coaching role promote organizational agility but also employee engagement. Companies that do not invest in continual training opportunities for employees may eventually find the need to make a massive investment in “reskilling” their workforce to remain competitive.
Summary
There’s a reason most leaders cite “culture” as an important priority. Agility, if it exists in an organization at all, is dictated by the organizations culture. Is your culture fiercely customer-focused and responsive? Or is it inwardly focused and introverted; more driven by red tape, bureaucracy and process than by reacting quickly and effectively to customer needs? Restructuring your organization chart isn’t enough. Ultimately the quality of your managers will make or break whether your culture is agile. This is the case whether you operate traditional, single-reporting lines or if the people management function is split between multiple roles in a matrix structure. The problem is managers can be roadblocks to your purpose and to agility when they don’t translate new priorities effectively; don’t involve people in setting goals, blame the company when change creates challenges, don’t cooperate with other managers or share information and don’t have continuous conversations with their employees.
Any thoughts to share? Please include them in the comment section below!
