How Leaders Create an Agile Culture

There are some books you just want to keep by you. Simon Hayward’s ‘The Agile Leader’ is one of those. It’s a book that offers new ways of working and doing business, showing not only how a new reality could look, but the steps we need to take to get there. For me, it supports a world of work that’s powered by transformation, not transaction. It spells out how an agile approach creates a value-based culture where connectivity and collaboration feed success – for people, for businesses and for society. 

Powering Transformation not Transaction

The Deloitte Millennial Survey of 2016 highlighted the importance of putting people before profit. For businesses to demonstrate the creativity and responsiveness needed to stay competitive in today’s fast-changing world, employees need to have the space to grow, to develop their talents, and have the confidence and trust to create timely value – serving the customer to the full. This simply doesn’t happen where work is a transaction of effort for financial gain. Hayward draws an insightful comparison between ‘trust’ and ‘conditional support’: “I meet many managers,” he writes, “who believe that people need to earn their trust, and that it can be given and then withdrawn at their personal discretion. This is not trust, it is conditional support, and it is a corrosive approach that undermines a healthy, agile culture.” By contrast where people’s values are in line with those of their organisation, and there is trust and authenticity, this sets the foundation for effective decision-making that furthers mutual goals.

A Connected Agile Culture

Hayward gives six main factors of an agile culture:

1.     Leadership Commitment

As with all organisational change, the commitment of leaders needs to be visible for others to be confident of their support.

2.    A Shared Sense of Purpose and Clarity of Direction

To stay competitive, organisations need to be able to be responsive and adaptive. Swift action is possible where decisions can be checked against a commonly understood direction and sense of purpose.

3.    Authentic Leadership

Hayward stresses the need for leaders to model an organisation’s values and ‘instil trust’. Trust is needed so people can experiment, innovate, and be able to test and learn without fear.

4.    Devolved Decision Making

Most decisions are best made by those with the most current understanding of an issue; those closest to the customer. Hayward differentiates strategic decision making – this needs to be done centrally.

5.     Collaboration across Teams, Functions and Specialisms

Collaboration sits at the heart of agile working. It’s the way dots get joined together, to create coherent and integrated results right across an organisation.

6.     A Focus on and Encouragement of Experimentation and Constant Feedback

Scheduled feedback loops are valuable, but when a culture encourages constant feedback, and everyone pulls together to build stronger relationships with customers and learn from them, then business flourishes.

This book provides guidance on working with an Agile mindset in a way that develops overall business agility. Hayward talks about ‘connected leadership’ and it is this connectivity between strategy and decisions, between values and actions, and between companies and customers that can deliver the full benefit of business agility.