5 Things you didn’t know about Enterprise Agility that are different from Agile 2001

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The Agile Manifesto from 2001 sparked a revolution in software development and product management. However, the acceleration of technology and markets over the last 20 years has created new challenges that require a different approach. Enterprise Agility —a holistic ecosystem for organizational adaptability in constant change.

Here are 5 key things that set Enterprise Agility apart from Agile 2001:

1. Focus on Multiple Types of Value: While Agile 2001 emphasized customer value, Enterprise Agility promotes creating sustainable value for customers, the company, and the wellbeing of the workforce. This TriValue Company model (TVC) ensures organizational decisions consider impacts on all key stakeholders, not just the customer. It recognizes that neglecting any one area will undermine the health of the whole system. The TriValue approach provides a more balanced compass to navigate trade-offs and make decisions that avoid unintended consequences.
2. Principles for Accelerated Change: Enterprise Agility provides 12 scientifically based principles specifically designed to guide organizations through exponential technological and market change. Principles like neurodiversity, workforce mobility, and continuous portfolio rebalancing optimize adaptability. In contrast, the values of Agile 2001 like “working software over documentation” no longer fit today’s hyper-dynamic environment. These new principles reflect research insights over the past 20 years on navigating uncertainty and thriving in disruptive times.
3. Future Readiness: Enterprise Agility helps companies continuously sense trends, engage diverse voices, and envision multiple plausible futures to get ready for what’s next through Future Thinking . This approach using key progress indicators is essential to stay ahead of accelerating change. Future Thinking moves strategy beyond just extrapolating the past to systematically exploring emergent possibilities. Agile 2001 had no systematic methodology to anticipate or prepare for the future.
4. Enterprise-Wide Application: Enterprise Agility provides frameworks like the 5 Dimensions of Agility (mental, social, structural, outcomes, technical) to scale agility through all business functions and levels, not just IT. It also offers tools like the Change Canvas to apply practices across the organization. With Enterprise Agility, the entire company can quickly sense, adapt, and respond to change, not just software teams. This enables embedding adaptability into the culture’s DNA across all departments. Agile 2001 focused mainly on software development teams with no enterprise-wide perspective.
5. The Science of Accelerated Change: Enterprise Agility integrates neuroscience, behavioral science, and strategic mobility to navigate exponential change. For example, it leverages the brain’s neuroplasticity and new ways to increase workforce mobility. These multidisciplinary scientific insights allow organizations to keep pace with the speed and complexity of today’s world. Agile 2001 did not integrate scientific knowledge about thriving in volatility.

As you can see, Enterprise Agility equips organizations to thrive amidst exponential technological and market change. It complements the original values of Agile 2001 while providing updated frameworks, principles, and tools needed to navigate today’s business environment. To learn more about accelerating change with Enterprise Agility, visit the EA World Community .

The Perils of an Egosystem and the Promise of an Ecosystem

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In today’s increasingly interconnected and fast-changing world, business strategies centered solely around the individual ego — or “Egosystem” — are proving dangerously shortsighted and unsustainable.

While maximizing immediate value for individual customers or shareholders may seem prudent, this narrow aim overlooks the broader context and complex interdependencies companies operate within.

An Egosystem worldview is like a circle with the individual or customer at the center. All efforts and resources flow inward, dedicated to optimizing value for that central focus alone. At first glance, this laser focus on the individual seems sensible — even admirable. However, in practice, it breeds a transactional, win-lose mindset fixated on short-term gains. It is an approach that depletes shared resources, fragments social cohesion, and disregards the interconnected nature of our world.

In contrast, the Ecosystem perspective of Enterprise Agility recognizes that individuals and companies are part of an intricately interconnected whole. Resources, people, capabilities, and innovations flow...

Continue reading this article in Enterprise Agility Magazine

A Great Free Training is Coming on Saturday!

Throughout history, the workplace has been a hub for teams to thrive. However, in today's world, we are blending physical spaces with collaboration tools, adapting to hybrid work models, addressing climate change, striving for equity and diversity, seeking work-life balance, embracing constant change, and navigating globalization and AI. These factors present us with a tremendous opportunity to reimagine how we work.

JOIN THE EVENT!

Join us in an interactive session where we come together to explore and generate ideas that address the following questions:

1. What could the workplace look like today and in the next five years?

2. How can neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and the science of virtuality inform our thinking?

With Apple's recent announcement of Spatial iOS and Vision Pro, let’s ponder whether this signifies a AR/VR technology breakthrough, incorporating lessons from past attempts (Google Glass, Facebook’s Meta) to success like the iPhone or failure like the Apple Newton? Let's embark on this journey of reimagining the workplace and shaping the future together.

Ready, Set, Adapt: Essential Skills for Organizational Change

We are launching a new training of our prestigious Certified Enterprise Agility Consultant Training CEAC in November. If you want to accelerate your career in organizational change, now is the time to enroll. Our intensive course equips Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, and Change Consultants with the essential skills to guide organizations through today's turbulent landscape. Check more information about our courses here .

Contact Greg Pitcher ?to learn more about our CEAC in November.

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Our?CEAC? training is packed with the latest models and frameworks to go beyond SAFe and Business Agility and take your organization and your career to new heights.

If you are in Australia, you can also check the?CEAC?training with?Sandip Rananavare !

Irena Pavlovska?is also starting a new?CEAC training in Europe . So if you are in that latitude, please get in touch with her right now!

(Spanish) Estamos comenzando un nuevo entrenamiento de Enterprise Agility en Latino América en Noviembre, y puedes llevar tu carrera al próximo nivel con AgileWise.?Click aquí para preguntarles más detalles!

Whatsapp Group for Change Professionals

We've launched an exciting new free initiative—a Whatsapp group for those reading Enterprise Agility Fundamentals?and other change professionals worldwide who want to learn advanced techniques to deal with change.

This group brings together 800 passionate leaders like you who share ideas for implementing enterprise agility and new approaches to organizational change and exponential markets. Here, we can share ideas, give and receive advice, and support each other in impacting the enterprise in the new accelerated reality. We would love for you to become part of this community. If you are interested,?click this link, and you will be added to the WhatsApp group .

Have a great Friday and weekend,

Erich R. Bühler

CEO, Enterprise Agility University