You’re probably hearing the term “agile” more frequently. “Agile” is more than the new buzzword of the day when describing organizations and teams. It can be a transformational way of looking at your organization and its processes, teams and individuals.

An agile organization is one that is hard-wired to innovate and can quickly and fluidly respond to change. In fact, an agile team or company is geared for change, while retaining an essential stability. If you want to dive deeply into the pool of agile organizations, you must read McKinsey’s articles Agility: It rhymes with stability and  The five trademarks of an agile organization.

While you may not be responsible for leading an enterprise-scale agility effort, every team and organization should consider what aspects of agility could be improved. Gallup writes in 3 Steps on the Path to Agility:

In operational terms, the concept of agility can be defined as employees’ capacity to gather and disseminate information about changes in the environment, and respond to that information quickly and expediently.

Today’s challenges require agility. How can your team or company become more agile? Gallup recommends:

1. Pick up the pace, without sacrificing quality. Empower employees, decentralize decisions and simplify processes.
2. Unleash ingenuity by allowing people to experiment and try new ideas without fear of failure.
3. Communicate and collaborate across teams to enable better decisions, consistency and organizational learning.

To make these lofty goals real, what is one thing you can start doing today to foster agility in your team? Have a proven method for making your team or organization more agile and responsive? Need ideas about how to get started? Comment below or message us.

Speaking of great teams, congratulations to our winners of a free copy of our latest book, “What Great Teams Do Great: How Ordinary People Accomplish the Extraordinary.” They are Brendan McCarthy and Wendy Nowicke of Edward Jones, Delesha Padula and Layna Monk of County National Bank, Corrie Rozzell and Heather Luciani of Marshall Community Credit Union, Erin Michael and Alissar Longworthy of Forensic Fluids and Kay Kossen, Dan Visscher and Mike Beam of Kreis Enderle. Congratuations!

 

Photo by “My Life Through A Lens” on Unsplash