Agility is defined as the ability to move quickly and easily. In a corporate context, we can think of agility as the ability of a company to change its ways of doing business quickly and smoothly in response to changes in the business environment.
In a 2017 report from Deloitte, roughly 10,000 executives surveyed worldwide said speed and agility were far more important to them than efficiency. However, most organizations continue to focus on operational and process efficiency. Industry 4.0 technologies like automation and artificial intelligence are well-equipped for efficiency.
Organizations now need to focus on a culture to build agility and speed-savvy leadership. Some characteristics of companies with an agile culture and mindset are:
- Making decisions and taking calculated risks quickly.
- Ability to give up old ways and rapidly learn new ways of doing business.
- Responding to changes in the business environment with speed.
- Smoother collaboration between teams.
- A low resistance to change.
Need for speed
Today’s business environment has sharply highlighted the need for companies to be agile. It used to be a common saying that change is the only constant. In today’s uncertain and dynamic environment, saying that change is the only constant is a serious understatement. Major, disruptive change has become the new normal. Companies, teams and individuals need to be extremely agile in order to embrace disruptive changes and adapt quickly. As Marc Benioff, Chair & CEO of Salesforce, says, “Speed is the new currency of business.”
The role of L&D teams
While disruptive change can be unsettling, it actually presents opportunities for business functions to stand out and provide strong value to their organizations. L&D teams can reinvent themselves as influencers and enablers of agility in their organizations.
In doing so, L&D teams boost their own credibility within the business. Rather than being a service function that merely fulfills training requests from the business, L&D teams can proactively become drivers of culture and influence the business at a more strategic and valuable level.
Strategies to enable agility and speed-savvy leadership
The table below outlines a few strategies and tactics through which L&D teams can help enable agility in their organization.
Key takeaways
Agility has become a business-critical requirement for companies in today’s VUCA environment. L&D teams can play a key role in developing agility in organizations as influencers of employee mindset and workplace culture. Enlisting senior management in this effort is critical for success.
Now is a tremendous time for L&D teams to champion this one-of-a-kind support for the business.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views or opinions of their employers.
