What is organizational agility?

The other day, an acquaintance of mine was talking about an industry partner at the university where she worked. “Oh, you know, they’re one of those agile organizations, so they don’t have offices. Just laptops.”

This is a fairly common misconception: that agile organizations are simply less “tied down” to a physical space.

There are quite a few different perspectives about organizational agility out there; many, in my opinion, fail to capture its full significance. For some, agility is synonymous with highly informal, non-rigorous change management processes—if you are committed enough to the idea in theory, it will “just happen.” Others seem to see agility embodied in non-hierarchical organization structures—which is getting closer, but ignores other critical aspects of agility, such as culture and leadership. Yet others see it as the implementation of specific practices rooted in software development methodologies, such as Agile.

First and foremost, agility is the ability to change and adapt in turbulent environments. It’s the ability to “stay level” in pursuit of a steady organizational vision while having the flexibility to adapt quickly when the environment demands.

However, agility isn’t simply change for the sake of change. What I believe is missing from most definitions is the ability for an organization to sense the need for change in the first place. If you don’t have the informational systems and perceptiveness to know you need to change at all, the ability to change in itself is pointless.

Back to my biology days:

In an organization, these “sensors” are often frontline staff, whether it be call centre employees or salespeople, the ones who interact most closely with clients and the world beyond the “cell walls” of the organization.

In highly centralized, hierarchical organizations, the critical information gained by these sensors must travel “up” a chain of managers and gatekeepers before a decision on how to act is made. Each link of this chain involves time, and opens up the possibility for the information to be misinterpreted, not unlike a game of telephone.

So, on a very practical level, agility is bringing decision making as close to the sensors as possible, saving time and sparing misinformation that gluts your processes and, eventually, makes you brittle.

It’s more like a muscle that develops over time. It’s a strategic mindset that underpins your ability to sense, change and grow, iteratively, no matter what environmental changes your organization faces.