What Is Agility?

If turbulence and turmoil define the problem, then agility is key to the solution.

Agility isn't a one-shot deal that can be checked off the organizational initiatives list. Agility is a way of life, a constantly emerging and changing response to business turbulence. Critics may counter, "Agility is merely waiting for bad things to happen, then responding. It is a fancy name for lack of planning and ad hoc ism." But agile organizations still plan; they just understand the limits of planning. Three characteristics help define agility: creating and responding to change, being nimble and able to improvise, and balancing flexibility and structure.

Agility is the ability to both create and respond to change in order to profit in a turbulent business environment.

Agility is not merely reaction, but also action. First and foremost, agile organizations create change, change that causes intense pressure on competitors. Creating change requires innovation, the ability to create new knowledge that provides business value. Second, agile organizations have an ability to react, to respond quickly and effectively to both anticipated and unanticipated changes in the business environment.

In our volatile economy, companies need to enhance their "exploration" skills at every level of the organization. Good explorers are agile explorers they know how to juggle and improvise. Indiana Jones was a good explorer, somehow living through every outlandish adventure. Agility means quickness, lightness, and nimbleness the ability to act rapidly, the ability to do the minimum necessary to get a job done, and the ability to adapt to changing conditions. Agility also requires innovation and creativity the ability to envision new products and new ways of doing business. In particular, IT organizations have not done an adequate job of balancing the needs of exploration and optimization.

Agile individuals can improvise they know the rules and boundaries, but they also know when the problem at hand has moved into uncharted areas. They know how to extend their knowledge into unforeseen realms, to experiment, and to learn. When critical things need to get done, call on the great improvisers.

Improvisation makes great jazz bands. From a few key structural rules, jazz bands improvise extensively. Having a solid foundation enables their tremendous flexibility without allowing the music to degenerate into chaos. The proponents of business process reengineering and software engineering methodologies probably blanch at the thought that improvisation, rather than carefully articulated processes, is key to success. Yet in today's turbulent environment, staff members with good balancing, judging, and improvisational skills are truly invaluable.

Being agile means trusting in one's ability to respond more than trusting in one's ability to plan.