Agility for Your People, Processes, and Technology

Is there anything more critical to a company than stability? Sure, profit matters, but some businesses can quickly achieve consistent profits when markets are stable.

However, the world doesn’t always operate in this way. Markets can be largely unpredictable, and conditions change rapidly. If your company’s viability depends on the marketplace – which is usually the case – you need to be prepared to face the task of attempting to maintain a smooth journey within a landscape that always seems to be changing.

Organizations that thrive under any given condition share one quality: they are all agile. When a challenge is thrown at an agile business, it knows when to accelerate, decelerate, and change directions. Indeed, agility can aid organizations’ adaptation to market changes and company changes.

Start with your people, processes, and technology*

People

Going beyond systems, you need to prioritize flexible and stable personality types during the hiring process. After all, people are just as crucial as procedures within your company’s ability to become agile. Thus, you must hire people who can adapt quickly to change and leverage modifications to better themselves and the company as a whole.

For example, dividing up positions by novelty versus repetitions may be a great idea. This involves jobs with little to no context, which need a lot of research, versus well-detailed duties.

Organizations that utilize both work approaches and adequately cross-train their workers to tackle both are generally better equipped when dealing with changing market conditions.

Processes

As a company, it’s best if you plan ahead, but you might also want to leave room for any unexpected changes. For example, a procedure can be 80% planned and 20% improvised, but knowing the suitable combination for you personally can make it simpler to react efficiently when the situation requires it.

When taking your procedures through the journey to agility, consider the following questions:

• How are you assessing agility as a company? Is this assessment working well, or do you need to broaden the definition, including other departments?
• What percentage of your work was planned versus improvised? Take a look at the work you have completed within the last year.
• Have you put the right people in the right positions?
• In previous attempts to combat challenges, what slowed down the process of agility?

Technology

If you handle technology correctly, it has the power to support both your processes and your people substantially. Despite this, you need to ensure that the technology you adopt helps your organization adapt to changes rapidly. Otherwise, this could be a massive hindrance to your path towards agility.

Collaborate for success

Executing all of the above might be overwhelming if you are already busy running a full-time business. Therefore, working with a specialist managed service provider like us will allow you to reduce your workload and provide you with the peace of mind you deserve. Don’t hesitate to contact us today for a no-obligation consultation!

If you want to educate yourself more about how to be agile as a business, check out our carefully constructed checklist, “3 Ways to Make Your Organization More Agile“, by clicking here.

*Organizational Agility – IESE Business School