Becoming an agile business is not optional today – it is an imperative for survival says Shane Hastie
Shane Hastie is the Director of Agile Learning Programs at ICAgile.Over the last 30+ years, Shane has been a practitioner and leader, helping teams to deliver results that align with overall business objectives. He spent 15 years as a professional trainer and consultant specializing in Agile practices, for SoftEd in Australia, New Zealand and around the world.
Shane is also active in the Business Analysis and Agile communities. He is a member of the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) and was a board member of the Agile Alliance. He was part of the Core Team who produced Version 3.0 of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®).Shane is the Lead Editor for Culture & Methods on www.InfoQ.com and the co-chair of the Business Agility Day at# AgileIndia2018.
Shane is talking about the Foundations of Business Agility on the Business Agility Day at #AgileIndia2018. In addition, he is also facilitating a pre-conference workshop titled Business Agility Foundations Certification.
To meet Shane and participate in his workshop please register Here.
What are the fundamentals of business agility and why is it important in the current business context?
Business Agility is the ability of an organization to thrive in a turbulent business environment – not just survive and not just respond, but actually, take advantage of the volatility and complexity and turn it into competitive advantage. This requires a fundamental rethink of much of what has made them successful in the past and the courage to adopt an experimentation, learning mindset.
The way we engage with customers, employees, partners, legislators and society as a whole is different. The focus shifts from the single-minded pursuit of shareholder returns to generating value for all stakeholders, with the customer front and center. In customer-centric organizations, profits follow as a consequence of the way we engage and the most successful businesses in the 21st century put customer delight at the core of everything they do.Becoming an agile business is not optional today – it is an imperative for survival.
How can organizations cultivate a culture that is responsive to value creation in a disruptive environment?
Consciously designing culture is hard, but absolutely necessary for agile businesses. We need to Create a space where each individual feels free to bring their whole selves to work, where people are engaged and want to make a difference. Aligned on outcomes, autonomous in action, individuals should feel safe and supported and enabled to unleash their creativity.
Identify the culture you want, identify how that culture is instantiated (“the way we do things here”) and support people to move towards the new norms of behavior. Culture change takes time and careful nurturing and isn’t something that can be outsourced to a consultant or purchased as a product, it takes dedicated, determined change starting from the top of the organization.
What are the typical challenges organizations face when they embark on a transformation journey to become truly agile in a business context?
The biggest challenge comes from the mistaken belief that this is something that can be achieved simply by adopting a new framework or set of practices. Organization transformation is about changing the way we think, the way we behave and the way we work together. It comes from the top, is enacted all through the organization and requires each individual to understand the personal impact on themselves, the impact of the way they collaborate with those around them and how they contribute to the ultimate organizational goals.
You have worked extensively with business leaders, in your opinion, what are the most important aspects Business leaders must keep in mind as they lead their organizations to thrive in a volatile environment?
What worked before no longer works today. There is no “best practice” and you can’t lead a transformation without being willing to transform yourself as well. If we want transparency, openness, truthfulness and aligned autonomy from the people in the organization then leaders have to model the behaviors we expect others to adopt.
What are the key takeaways from your talk and workshop for the attendees? Is there something they can apply immediately to their work?
The talk provides some key ideas and concrete advice about changes that are needed at an individual level as well as things that organizations and teams need to do in order to create the space for business agility to emerge and thrive.
The workshop expands on those ideas and goes deeply into how to achieve personal and organizational transformation into new ways of thinking and working. Tools and techniques which can be applied immediately and a roadmap for future actions needed to achieve the goal of sustainable transformation.
