Elusive Agility and What to Do About It

By Bryan Kaus

At companies across industries and around the world, agility has been an ever-increasing central point of focus in the corporate narrative. It makes sense; being dynamic allows businesses to pivot quickly to changing environments, eke out advantages over competition or in some cases seize entirely new opportunities and markets. After all, that is the very definition of business success.

The explosive expansion of data and analytics have only furthered this cause as businesses find themselves with more information at their fingertips than ever before. The notion that this information can provide insights in real-time or even through predictive analytics and expanded application of artificial intelligence is an exciting concept to many leaders around the world to capture more value and improve efficiency and returns.

For all the promise of data-driven decisions, however, performance of outcomes can tend to disappoint expectations. A recent article by Bart de Langhe and Stefano Puntoni in the MIT Sloan Management Review points to the notion that data sometimes leads us to answer the wrong questions and confirm preexisting beliefs, rather than defining an agile path forward. While this is undoubtedly true, there is something more fundamental in play – barriers.

These barriers come in many different forms, from economic to emotional and are typically deeply rooted in operational legacy and organizational culture. In an operating environment, one may face challenging circumstances but neglect to alter course because of perceived critical interrelationships between business functions built on historic precedent. This is the “we’ve always done it this way” conversation when experience can work against performance improvements. This can often be further compounded on an emotional level, whereby even if the writing is one the wall, attachment to a business, its people, its legacy importance distorts reality and acts as an anchor against seizing otherwise logical opportunistic change.

The longer they hold on to these beliefs, the slower they become, the weaker their market competitiveness. In response, organizations tend to resort to ever more dramatic initiatives to restore and revitalize the business, many of which fail to yield sustainable outcomes and erode profitability over the long run.

Unless we overcome the mindset, all the data in the world will not matter. 

What to do?

• Focus on the present: Getting a solid understanding of the environment as it exists today is key. Oftentimes, we look to the past to inform our decisions, the only problem is the past is ill-equipped to predict the present or future. Given history often rhymes with the present, it can inform to a degree, but should not dictate the course of action. The present is the only known. From there, you can build a plan and execute to solve for the environment and opportunity at hand.
• Ideate Scenarios: The future is an unknown. It is fairly common practice to build out complex strategic approaches to get to a precise future state. While there is value in building a plan, false precision in planning can compound problems in addressing evolutionary forces in business. Rather than setting one course, it is essential to develop multiple courses to account for potential events and conditions. This is known as scenario planning. It’s like creating a series of levers and then having the option to pull them when warranted so you can be proactive. To be clear, it’s not about predicting the exact future, the only thing that is certain is uncertainty, but it is about creating pathways that can be adapted to real-world conditions; allowing one to be nimble and responsive in the moment rather than reactive.
• Be Decisive: Commitment to and follow-through on execution is essential. Often, not wanting to choose the wrong course, leaders spin wheels on an all of the above approach or even adopting contradictory tactics. Data has, at times, exemplified this challenge, when organizations face analysis paralysis. This defeats potential. Choosing a deliberate path and pursing it wholeheartedly is the necessary course of action. The timing is never perfect, the information may not be complete.
• Own It: Ownership can be surprisingly elusive, especially when facing the unknown. Nobody wants to be associated with failure and often times people love to claim credit after the fact. In truth, the only way to success is owning the decision entirely – whether a success or a failure. Dwight Eisenhower famously wrote two speeches as D-Day approached, one for success and one taking responsibility in the event the attack failed. The point? Accountability is everything, that builds strong outcomes and establishes trust. Remember, failure is rarely fatal. As leaders, rather than punish failure, it is essential to support those willing to own and take risks, especially when it fails.
• Be Humble: Ego can be poison, both at the individual and enterprise level. Just because you have seen success before or been in an industry or sector for a long time is not validation of infallibility. Add to that there is a prevailing tendency to celebrate the wins and bury the losses. It is important to celebrate success, but perhaps even more so, it is critical to profile failures, understand them, accept them and in doing so recognize your true competitive positions. We’re often only as good as our current performance.
• Listen: One of the greatest challenges I’ve seen in my work is people talking past each other. On the surface, it seems like there is conflict between competing interests or business functions, customers or colleagues. Things can get heated and the business suffers stagnancy. More often than not, intentions are good, but they may be focused on one particular aspect. Listening, tabling emotion and working to understand the perspective of others – be they customers, colleagues or competitors can provide more value in adaptability and strong, smart results than almost anything else.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable and accept that reality is fluid, be it a regulatory environment, competitive landscape or breakthrough innovation. By leveraging the principles above and one can get closer to to real agility and the bounty that it can afford, be that resiliency in business or happiness in life.

Disclaimer: Mr. Kaus holds a degree from Pennsylvania State University, certifications from The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Northwestern University and is a member of the American Economic Association. Opinions represented here are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of any persons, companies or entities referenced within the content or otherwise referenced.

All information, contained within this article, including quotes, is/are sourced from publicly available information (i.e. press releases, regulatory filings, published interviews etc.). Specific attention has been paid to accuracy, however, the author makes no guarantees as to the complete accuracy of the content. Additional attention has been paid to ensuring compliance with all policies, guidelines and laws. This should not be construed as investment advice.

Note: Mr. Kaus is an employee of Phillips 66 and Managing Director of nüEvo Development Corp., however, opinions represented here are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of any persons, companies or entities referenced within the content or otherwise referenced. All information is public and in compliance with policies, regulations etc. Any and all inquiries relating to this matter should be directed to the company(ies) referenced and its appropriate and authorized person(s).