Since the rise of the agile movement within software development, I’ve really believed that I’ve been on the frontier of the worldwide agile transformation. You know… Think big, start small. Patience is a virtue. This is the beginning of something extraordinary.

However, there’s always been some recurring issues regardless of which organization I’ve been operating within. As it seems, the actual outcome as a whole has always been far below my initial expectations.
When one part of the organization is trying to operate according to agile principles and the other adjacent parts are not, you find yourself in a peculiar situation. Sub-optimization! The expected leverage will simply not appear if you only adopt agile principles in parts of an organization.

Adaptability
A true agile organization must have adaptability as a key ingredient in its operating model. Finding the middle ground and proper balance between the global and the local, between centralization and decentralization, and between formal and informal processes should be one of the foremost objectives. Put the ”non-negotiable” aspects in the center and empower local units to be more responsive and adaptive.

Human capital
A true agile organization has a strategic insight into human capital, and can use that insight to proactively put in place the right workforces with the proper level of effectiveness in order to respond to the market needs.

Organizational silos
A true agile organization has overcome structural deficiencies and organizational silos that prevent the flow of information and knowledge around parts of the organization.

Collaboration as culture
A true agile organization has established a collaborative culture at all levels within the enterprise in order to utilize the knowledge within the organization as well as the knowledge outside the organization.

Strategy execution
A true agile organization executes strategies swiftly and manage change effectively. This includes having a center of competence for change management in order to establish a more general capacity to be agile. I.e. establishing an organization-wide mindset of continuous renewal and seeing opportunities rather than barriers.

Fighting complicatedness
A true agile organization actively works to fight complicatedness and creates incentives to collaboration in order to break down silos that might impede the ability of different parts of the organization to adapt and strive for common objectives and goals.

Change management
The mindset and attitudes of an organization’s executive team about change is IMHO the universal key success factor in agile transformation. The myth of human resistance to change has been repeated so often that it have become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Believe it or not, studies have found that people actually have a natural inclination to learn and grow, and not to utilize that inclination is just utterly stupid.

Organizational agility is crucial not by itself, but as a mean to set of factors that lead to high performance overall. Executives are forced to focus on their organizations’ ability to execute and not just strategize. The distinctive edge in organization design is not about labels on a chart but about the ways that executives are able to execute that design. It’s without no doubt that the era of the ”3-5 year strategy” is no more and ivory tower leadership is a thing of the past.