ARE YOU READY TO DEVELOP AN AGILE ORGANISATION? Are you ready to develop a future proof organisation – today? Do you have the courage, the determination and the perspective to lay the ground for a journey for leaders and employees in your organisation – A journey that is never- ending and without ultimate goals? Organisations in all sectors are facing major changes that can challenge core processes, customer and employee expectations, organisational and IT structures and even the complete business model. Change has always been a part of any organisation, but today business leaders face a somewhat different situation. The sheer pace and volume of changes that have the potential to completely change transform businesses have increased exponentially. In a scenario where change is the only constant, it can be tempting to quote Darwin: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives but the most adaptable”. So, what does this mean for your organisation? What do you do, when even the most data-driven and wellfounded strategy cannot predict the near (or far) future? What will enable your organisation and not least your people to develop in an environment that is more VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous – than ever? In this paper, we give our viewpoint on what defines the agile organisation, and how you, as an executive in a private or public organisation, can initiate the journey towards organisational agility while still making your employees feel confident and motivated to take part in this journey. This is not a classical paper describing tools and methods to develop your organisation from A-Z. Instead, this paper represents both a concrete process framework, which you as a leader can start using tomorrow, and a general way of thinking organisational development to increase the probability of it being future proof. It is an understanding of the journey that requires a fundamentally different approach to leading your organisation without a final destination. An approach which puts the organisational development, also regarding structural and vital changes, outside of the board room and down into the organisation. And an acknowledgement that this does not remove the responsibility from the management, but that it is rather a responsibility for you as a leader to develop personally. THE AGILE ORGANISATION In our view, an agile organisation is able to swiftly understand new internal or external needs, adapt accordingly and do this in an efficient way. To do this, four elements require your attention. The key is to find the right balance between these different elements, see also illustration on page 4: • Customers and core services • Robustness • Adaptivity • Human dynamics 3
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