Agile Organizations: Stability in a Dynamic World

For decades of institutional development, organizational structures and workflows have remained relatively constant. Different organizations, whether corporations, government entities, or non-government organizations, were rather one-dimensional and centered around their objectives that reflected to a great extent the core purpose of their existence. For private corporations, maximizing profits and capturing market share were the top priorities. On the other hand, government entities focused on achieving their officially mandated goals. Organizations were therefore more like machines: specialized and output driven. This one-dimensional approach and restricted vision reflected internally on multiple aspects of the organization such as the organizational structure, workflows, and communication channels, among others. Organizational structures were hierarchical and reporting lines were strictly adhered to. Workflows followed the traditional waterfall approach of planning, setting a clear timeline with predefined deliverables, and assigning roles to team members.

Today, global external and internal factors are disrupting the way organizations manage work and deliver their outcomes, leading to an inevitable paradigm shift to business as we know it. One prime external factor would be the accelerating pace of life, both on an individual and an institutional front. On an institutional level, managers are increasingly getting caught up in back-to-back meetings, responding to emails that require instant replies, and managing multiple projects simultaneously. Second, global conditions are becoming increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Case-in-point: the COVID-19 pandemic, that confirmed what many executives had feared: that their organizations were prepared for a perishing system of standardization that is becoming ever more threatened by technological advancements and unanticipated political and economic events. Third, the availability of data and the innovations in data applications are increasing pressures on organizations to utilize this data in innovative and novel ways. This factor, coupled with increasing competition in a winner-takes-all environment, together result in the fourth external factor affecting organizations: rising stakeholder expectations. Individuals are expecting more of their service providers, employers, or governments in terms of quality of services, flexibility, and speed. As for the internal factors influencing workflows today, organizations are becoming more impact driven than in the past. Leaders are realizing the importance of sustainability and are in the least attempting to incorporate sustainability concepts into their internal processes, if not contribute actively to their achievement through more inclusive visions, goals, and practices. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria are hence becoming an integral part of organizations’ goals, replacing the previous arrangement of an output-driven and short-run led organization. As a result, governments and corporations are embracing the concept of tackling multiple goals simultaneously, whether these goals address their personal growth or are primarily in the interest of external stakeholders and society as a whole.

How should organizations respond to these external and internal factors? The answer could be summarized in a single term: agility. An agile organization could be defined as a human-centric organization that has the ability to adapt and respond quickly to changes in the market or environment.

Agile organizations therefore embrace complex and unpredictable conditions by being customer-centric rather than output-centric through the continuous delivery of value to their customers and stakeholders.

Agility was first born in the software industry, where developers often run into a myriad of challenges throughout their development process. Their previous plan-driven process, better known as the waterfall approach, is rather rigid and leaves limited room for modifications or changes in between. Therefore, the iterative agile approach evolved as a more flexible and accommodative methodology that allows developers to constantly respond to customers’ needs throughout their development process rather than deliver the final product at the end of the production process.

Due to its efficiency, flexibility, and focus on value, agility escaped its role as a niche software development methodology and became a leading approach to work management. Agile organizations constantly adapt their work based on feedback from customers or stakeholders. They prefer responding to change rather than following a pre-set plan, which often results in delivering cumulative value to the customer. The key characteristics of agile organizations that distinguish it from non-agile organizations could be summarized below:

• Stakeholder-centricity: Agile organizations are committed to delivering the outcome that is in the best interest of stakeholders and customers, shifting from the traditional ideology of delivering output to delivering outcomes. Therefore, this purpose is engrained as a shared vision within the whole organization and among all levels of employees to ensure the delivery of quality services and products to customers and stakeholders.
• Swift decision cycles: Continuous change is a fundamental element of agile organizations. Therefore, such organizations plan frequent meetings known as sprints where teams review the progress reached thus far and engage in rapid decision making, rather than preparing long-term and detailed plans ahead of time. As certified agile practitioners at Ntsal, we see the benefits of adopting such an approach especially with projects that evolve on a weekly basis and hence require rapid decision making to align with the client’s objectives.
• Transparency and open communication: Organizational agility is built on an open communication style that values collaborating and sharing to facilitate the system of continuous feedbacks and “sprints” that enhance the product or service. This system requires transparency to create a symbiosis between all teams to enable the smooth flow of information within the organization.
• A network of interdependent teams: Another critical aspect of agile organizations is the cohesive community that shares the common purpose and vision of creating value for stakeholders. This requires a network of empowered teams that foster the collaborative environment needed to produce the best quality outcomes.
• Technology integration: Since agile organizations rely on continuous feedback loops and consequent product development, proper technological infrastructure and tools are required to facilitate this flexibility and encourage the seamless collaboration of employees and teams with one another.

In short, organizational agility represents a shift from rigid hierarchical structures, siloed teams, and stringent planning and budgeting to a more flexible environment of rapidly adapting and value-driven teams.

The benefits of transforming to an agile organization are numerous. While they are more value-driven than output-driven, agile organizations are still better able to deliver higher quality products and services through their strategy and optimized operational processes, achieving greater customer satisfaction and inevitably higher performance indicators. Second, the empowered network of teams that works in constant feedback loops fosters an environment of experimentation and hence encourages innovation. Third, agility accentuates prioritizing tasks based on stakeholder feedback, which results in greater efficiency on an institutional level. Fourth, the engagement of employees, transparent environment, and the shared sense of purpose increase employee satisfaction and hence performance.

Finally, perhaps the greatest outcome of agile transformation is increased stability amidst an increasingly unstable external environment due to its adaptive nature. All in all, this means that agile organizations are better able to achieve both their profitability and social impact objectives.

Successful agile transformation is a gradual process that could be achieved by a number of factors. First and foremost, the top-level executives must fully master the concept of agility and envision its framework in a practical manner. Consequently, the transformation should be top-bottom rather than bottom-up, starting with top-level executives communicating the concepts and terminologies of agility to their teams, highlighting the numerous benefits of adopting such a framework in the organization. The management should also ensure that the entire ecosystem of strategy, processes, leadership styles, and technologies are in place to supports this transformation. Finally, it is important to implement these transformation efforts in a continuous manner to avoid losing momentum and focus on the ultimate goal of the transformation.

One of Ntsal’s areas of expertise is supporting organizations in their agile transformation journey by leveraging our unique composition that combines software development, strategy consulting, and design innovation. Our 3-step Agile Transformation Framework below translates agility from conception to reality:

• Leadership vision creation: The first step of the transformation journey starts with leadership. We set the foundations necessary by educating, coaching, and guiding leadership to develop a vision for how to transform their organization, set a timeline for implementation, and highlight the capabilities and capacities required to achieve that.
• Structure building and pilot selection: An agile team typically follows a structure that assigns specific roles to team members. These roles include the product owner, the developers, and the scrum master. We support organizations in selecting a pilot field or project to implement this framework and aid them in training and guiding all team players to ensure the success of the project.
• Training and rolling out: Parallel to the pilot program, we assess other departments’ readiness for the agile framework adoption, raise awareness across the organization, train and certify key functions, and gradually roll out the framework across the organization. As becoming long-term partners is a core part of Ntsal’s work philosophy, we are also typically available for post-implementation consultation and evaluation of results.

To conclude, today’s rapidly changing environment and the external and internal factors that organizations face make agility an inevitable culture and framework that organizations must adopt in order to thrive. In a dynamic world where nothing is constant, ensuring internal stability and versatility has become the key secret to success for private corporations, government entities, and all institutions alike.

Authors: Noor El Ghorab, Business Analyst at Ntsal and Martin Janzen, Managing Partner, Ntsal Consultancy