The Agile Organization is on the Rise!

Agile Organizations are on the rise! Building out change management in organizations has helped companies understand that people must change continuously and often to survive in the ever-changing business environment. But let’s go deeper than just helping people change to preparing them for constant change, building the change ready agile organization where change is considered good!

High performing organizations are change ready. Across the organization, empowered employees are contributing to meaningful change and impactful business improvement. People are happy because they are building solutions and making a difference. The leaders of the organization are highly aware of the importance of the people of the organization. And these are the best places to work!

In working with organizations to build an agile organization, we have learned that building change capability across the organization requires:

·      Strong sponsors with strong conviction to make this happen. The Sponsor understands the importance of building a network of sponsors and cascading this throughout the organization.

·      Build mission, vision, and an elevator speech for the program. Use Marketing campaign methods to really sell the concept and the urgent need for change readiness. Ensure employees apply the vision to their work.

·      Change readiness is embedded in the culture.

·      Most organizations need some culture change in the process of building out change capability and capacity.

·      Building change capability takes time and patience. It doesn’t happen overnight and is in in no way easy!

·      Employees are empowered and constantly learning.

·      Establish that change is the new constant in the organization. Create a sense of urgency for change. Build on the message that change is not something to fear.

In the ideal corporate culture for frequently changing companies, the people of the organization:

·      Are self-motivated and feel ownership of the organization’s success. They think and behave like owners of the business – they are entrepreneurs for the business. They are fearless and will to work through any pain from change even if it means leaving their comfort zone. And this relates back to major Change Management theories that the employees must not become complacent.

·      Fully understand the corporate strategy and can tie the strategy to what they are doing.

·      Are valued - knowledge management and people development are considered important.

Honest and open communication is very important to successful change. This means that the ideal agile corporate culture encourages open door policies for managers and their direct reports with the managers having good listening skills and the ability to get down to root cause of any individual concerns. The people of the agile organization learn to recognize their own resistance to change and adjust their thinking and mindset to reach desire for the changes.

The organization:

·      The culture is innovative, and decisions can be made by employees as they do their work.

·      The culture sees change as good.

·      Leaders stay engaged. Everyone understands what we are trying to do, where we are going. The learning organization.

·      Everyone constantly learns and grows.

·      Organization siloes are eliminated.

·      Employees don’t get up and say I must go to work, I wonder what is in store for me today. Instead they want to know what challenges the day will bring, what problems to solve.

·      Agile organizations embrace risk, allowing failure while empowering people to make decisions. Without this empowerment, the organization is not agile.

·      The agile organization will have a strong purpose, vision, mission and attainable goals. People understand how their work is tied to the corporate goals.

What are the rewards to the organization that constantly builds its change capability, capacity and readiness?

·      Quick response to strategic opportunities

·      Quickly identify and respond to market shifts

·      The business maintains the fast pace to keep the competitive edge

·      People in agile organizations are more likely to be happier at work which contributes to higher performance

·      The company recruits and keeps the best talent

·      Leader in the industry and a highly successful business

The top performing companies understand that the pace of change is increasing and will continue to increase. These leading businesses understand that they must ensure the change ready organization by hiring people who will are suited to the agile culture and constantly building on improving the business.

“Your success in life isn't based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers, and business.” -Mark Sanborn