Speed, fitness, flexibility, resilience…words more often used to describe a
world class athlete than a business organization. By all accounts, the 21st
century is bringing a frenzy of innovation driven by the continuing digital
revolution and expanding global markets. This environment of accelerated
uncertainty and change is not going to blow over and settle down…ever.
A quick
read of Thomas Friedman’s best-selling book, “The World is Flat,” will give you
perspective of turbulence that lies ahead. This is the era of “turbo
turbulence.”
What Concerns You?
If you are like most business leaders and CEOs today – one of the main
challenges you face is how to get your organization to sense and respond to
those unpredictable forces of change (customers, consumers, suppliers,
regulators, etc.) more quickly and reliably than your competition does or your
customers expect.
Recent studies by McKinsey & Co., The Conference Board and
the American Management Association consistently highlight that the top one or
two challenges facing CEOs today is how to make their organizations more nimble,
adaptable or agile.
The July 2006 McKinsey & Company study of 1,500 global executives
overwhelmingly reported an “urgent need to increase the agility and speed in
their organization” and that executives around the globe are “trying in various
ways to do so.”
In fact, almost nine out of 10 executives reported the need for
agility as either “extremely” or “very” important to their business performance
and 86 percent said the same about speed. Agility was defined as an
organization’s ability to change tactics or direction quickly – that is, to
anticipate, adapt to and react decisively to events in the business
environment. Speed was defined as a measure of how rapidly an organization
executes an operational or strategic objective.
Every year, we find new examples of companies and products entering our life
with new capabilities and benefits that we didn’t even know we needed…and then
before we know it…we can’t live without them. How long has Google™ been part of
your life? A recent report declared Google as the world’s most recognized
brand! Could you imagine life without a search engine?
Finding The Speed And Agility You Need To Survive:
What have your competitors been doing to enhance their adaptability and
responsiveness? How can you get your organization to use fresh, innovative
thinking and to anticipate change rather than simply reacting to it? How can you
create a more decisive, responsive organization where initiating action is a
smooth reflex and not an ordeal?
The challenges and barriers to a sustainable
transformation to an agile enterprise include behavioral, attitudinal and
organizational dimensions that are woven into the leadership and cultural fabric
of most organizations.
Based on years of research and experience along with collaborative work with
the likes of CIO Magazine’s AGILE 100, the Human Resource Planning Society
(HRPS) and Cornell University, the answers begin with an objective and candid
self-assessment of the three key enterprise domains: your people, processes and
technology.
Creating and sustaining a truly agile enterprise requires all three
arenas to reach a high standard of excellence – it is not enough to rely on good
people or the latest technology. The bar is raised higher each day. You must
deliver on all three fronts if you are to be successful today and tomorrow.
Based on research and experience, the AGILE Model™ was developed and reflects
core dynamics and five critical drivers of organizational and strategic agility:
- Anticipating change,
- Generating confidence,
- Initiating action,
- Liberating thinking and
- Evaluating results.
Each of these key areas
involves important organizational processes and speaks to specific and important
implications for the individual leader – which is the key to the overall agility
equation.Over the coming months, we will address each of these drivers and provide
useful, practical suggestions for how you might begin the journey of becoming a
more AGILE organization – and leader.
