Organizations today are operating in a VUCA World. There’s a dire need to be agile and market responsive. The word Agility in itself has been overused even though the essence of the principle has not been implemented the way it needs to be. Also, in organizations which have attempted to become agile, the whole agile process implementation has become one complicated exercise …so much so that that the organizations hardly see the benefits – -both long and short term. Very few organizations are truly agile. The diagram below explains what I mean
So why is it so difficult for an organization to be completely agile?
Because it requires a paradigm shift in the mindset/outlooks of leaders and then, the employees. Very few organizations attempt this genuinely.
Good corporate governance processes are about synchrony in the way employees work towards common goals. But in the process organizations create rigid structures so as to keep shareholders happy. This translates into centralization of authority, tight processes, impersonal communications etc. without the right mindset transformations. This is the fundamentals of traditional organizational structures.
It’s the age of networked structures. The manifesto of an agile, networking centric organization is centered around
• Individuals over mechanical processes
• Customer centricity
• Collaboration over unilateral communications
• Responsiveness and proactiveness over reactiveness.
BTW, Agility is not ‘corporate acrobatics;
An Agile Organizational Operating System™ has two components to be addressed:
The Organizational Mindset and The Organizational Structure
An organization’s mindset is the collective of commonly held attitudes and beliefs about change that all members of the organisation hold. An individual’s mindset can be a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. (refer to the work of Dr. Carol Dweck). A growth mindset also encompasses emotional agility of individuals. A growth mindset must be adopted by all key individuals (at least), of the organizations that are looking to become agile and innovative.
An organization must endeavor to create the right mindset, skill set, and structures required for it to be truly agile, innovative, and responsive. But almost always when organizations speak of agile, they get stuck at the project management level. This is where agility Fails.
So. now know where to restart your Agility Journey.
One question you want to ask yourself – are you ready for the organization of the future?
