12 Keys to Creating an Adaptable and Agile Organisation
In a fast-changing and competitive global marketplace, the need for enterprises to act with adaptability and agility is more important than ever. This premise has developed as a recent ‘buzz’ and a highlighted trend across organizations but the beliefs have a long history of importance.
In his book Tao Te Ching, author Lao Tzu stated:
The stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.
Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.
A tree that is unbending is easily broken.
The hard and strong will fall.
The soft and weak will overcome.
These principles are just as valid in IT organizations today as when Lao Tzu spoke to them generations ago. I spoke to three Australian IT chiefs to discuss what is necessary to create and sustain a culture of adaptability and agility.
On the next page are the 12 keys based on my conversations with PwC Australia CIO, Hilda Clune; RMIT CIO Paul Oppenheimer; and the Office of the Government CIO WA executive director, IT strategy and delivery, Stuart Gibbon.
1. Minimise the distance to the source of problems
Oppenheimer states that we must minimize the distance between the problems that occur or the solutions that are required and those who work on or solve them. The more layers of space between them the more bogged down we become and the less agile we can be.
3. Develop a mindset of accepting the unknown
We like things to be known, it’s in our nature as humans. We are comfortable when we know what to expect and there is clarity, certainty, and predictability. The only certainty is that change is inevitable. We must develop the attitudes in ourselves and our team to thrive in the unknown.
4. Use sprints to ensure the most logical use of capacity and time
According to Oppenheimer, using sprints is a very effective method of supporting agility. Set short-term objectives and target your resources at them to achieve them quickly, he says. Think of your journey as a series of short-term sprints that allow for adjustments in between them as opposed to one long and steady marathon.
5. Be enterprise-focused
WA Office of the Government CIO’s Gibbon states we must remember to keep an enterprise-level focus. This requires to us to adopt the client-based language. The attitude of ‘us versus them’ must be eliminated within IT and across the organization. It is about a partnership and not a supply chain relationship.
6. Ensure the purpose of agility is clear
Agility for agility’s sake only belongs in a circus,” Gibbon says. There must a goal, outcome, or purpose that we are trying to reach when acting with agility. We have an endpoint in mind and take an agile and adaptable approach to getting there, he says.
7. Understand your boundaries
While we are building our adaptable organizations, we must also set boundaries as to where applying these principles would be detrimental and not support achieving our enterprise objective. Perhaps not following generally accepted accounting procedures in regards to our financial statements wouldn’t be an area to apply being adaptable.
8. Create a culture of corporate courageousness
Gibbon says “forward-moving organizations reward success while stagnant organizations punish failure.” We must develop a positive view of failure. Fail fast, learn, adjust and act again. Failing small early will support larger success later.
9. Think about experience first
PwC’s Clune states we must think from the experience we are creating first. Is the experience we are creating integrated? Is it intuitive? Is it clear and does is support working with each other?
10. Go beyond solving the moment
Clune adds that we must be thinking from the future. We must create platforms that go beyond solving the moment. For adaptability and agility, the foundations of what we create must have the ability to evolve along with the organization.
11. Create a broad adoption strategy
The goal of the adoption strategy is to have people and technology come together at every level where we look at our space and technology as one and not separately. We utilize ‘follow me anywhere’ technology to support collaboration for the organization, says Clune.
12. Build an ecosystem
The role that technology plays in creating an organizational environment is more important in the future than it has ever been in the past. We must upskill our people and teams to thrive inside the new space that is created.
The culture of agility and adaptability that we create in the ecosystem must eliminate the idea of technology transformation versus ecosystem transformation and progress with the understanding that they are one and the same.
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