Organizational Agility

    Agile Culture

  • An Agile organization strives to move away from traditional “Plan and Execute” culture and move towards continuous “Sense and Respond” culture
    • Executing plans made out of partial, incorrect or outdated information is not likely to produce the desired outcome.
    • Plans need to be replaced by continuous planning based on the latest information on hand.
    • In a continuously changing and evolving world, the ability to sense areas that need more attention is an important asset of an organization.
    • Building stable teams, systems, and infrastructure that can respond to various complexities and uncertainties increases the chances of success in any organization.

    • Value-Based Delivery

  • An Agile organization is committed to delivering the Right Value to the Right Customer at the Right Time
    • The customer is whoever consumes the value. The more clearly we define and understand our customers, the more value we can add to their lives.
    • Customers pay and use what is useful to them and not what is given to them.
    • Organizations need to be creative in finding what is useful to their customers and avoid working on anything that is not.
    • The right value is said to be delivered when the value makes economic sense for both the consumer of the value and the producer of the value.
    • We need to be creative in finding what is useful to customers and avoid waste.
    • Value, when not delivered on time loses its importance. There is always a cost to pay for the delay.

    • Systems Thinking

  • An Agile organization is committed to applying Systems Thinking to all of its systems
    • A system is a community of interconnected components. The total value produced from a system is always more than the sum of individual outputs produced by its components.
    • A system must be managed. When left unmanaged, the components of the system become selfish and thus destroy the system.
    • An organization should be well aware of all its systems and system owners.
    • The contribution of the components towards the overall value of the system is equal, if not more important than the individual output of the components.

    • Self-Managed Team

  • An Agile organization is committed to developing high performing self-managed teams
    • When the members of the team are knowledge workers and the output of the team’s work is what delivers value rather than the output of individual contributors, then the team should be left to self manage.
    • For a team to self manage, the roles, goals, and norms must be clearly defined.
    • In a self-managed team, each role within the team has the authority to make any decisions to achieve its purpose as long as the decision is not against the norms and also remain accountable for the outcome.
    • Reward policies should be based on the overall performance of the team and individuals’ contributions towards the team’s performance.
    • A coach can greatly enhance team improvement and performance.
    • The work structure of a team mirrors its communication structure.
    • The team’s overall cognitive intelligence is the asset of a self-organized team and should be preserved.

    • Learning and Growth

  • The team’s overall cognitive intelligence is the asset of a self-organized team and should be preserved
    • Every human being is naturally inclined to learn and grow which motivates the person to produce and contribute more.
    • The working environment should be designed to promote the learning and growth of all workers
    • Learning at work requires physiological safety as well as dedicated time and space.
    • The shorter the cycle of experience and reflection, the faster the learning.
    • People should avoid making mistakes, learn from failures, and collaborate more during setbacks.

    • Servant Leadership

  • An Agile organization is committed to Servant Leadership