Agility is a term on everyone’s lips as businesses recognize the transformational benefits that it can bring. It can be difficult, however, to implement agile techniques – especially for established companies. There are several ways to run an agile business and most paths to the technique share some common elements.
While traditional organizations are built around a static departmental hierarchy, agile ones are characterized by a flexible network of teams that use rapid learning and decision-making cycles to achieve their goals. While traditional approached use a hierarchical governance structure, agile ones instill a common purpose and de-centralize decision-making to the teams that have the best data on which to based their judgments – that is, that are closest to the information. An agile business, when operating optimally, combines speed of execution with adaptability to achieve results faster and more efficiently than traditional top-down approaches.
