Building agile institutions

Source of the picture: sysaid.com/blog

What does it mean to be agile?

When you’re trying to build a prototype of the Eiffel Tower, just using your LEGO parts, that’s called the AGILE Version of Building a REAL one. — Explain Agile to Kids.

Agile approach is embedded in our lives.

Are you aiming to reduce few pounds? You will figure out the right diet and adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Are you aiming to be a marathon runner? You will start with 5–10 Ks and scale it up till the body builds the stamina for longer distances.

… and so on.

Organizations are also complex organisms. They need adaptable executives and management teams who can build plans, take fast decisions whilst keeping an eye on the larger objectives.

There are many definitions, frameworks and guiding principles laying out the foundations of an agile organization. However, as a business leader, its critical to choose what matters the most and stay focused on those elements. Fundamentally, the answer of what it takes to become agile is embedded in following critical strategic and operational questions.

Strategic Imperatives

1. Have you been able to crisply articulate the vision and objectives — as an organization, as product lines, as a function, as a leader?
2. Have you translated the objectives in OKRs/ KRAs/ KPIs?
3. Is the current technology architecture robust enough to take up 100X more load?

Operational Imperatives

1. Have you been able to keep the talent and skill levels relevant?
2. Do you have a clear process for commissioning a cross-functional team at scale?
3. Are these cross-functional teams able to iterate on feedback (internal or external) fast enough?
4. Are the deployed tools able to support all of the above — talent management, cross-functional teaming, and iterating on feedback?
5. Are teams empowered enough to take decisions faster?

Answering these questions with hard evidence can give insights on what critical areas an organization needs to focus on in becoming agile.

Reorganizing The Agile Way

How to become agile?

Ironing out the core of what organization does is a critical prerequisite followed by alignment of the mapped out initiatives — in case only few are done then build and evolve toward a dynamic initiative list — and assign quantifiable metrics. Once a view has been created, it gets relatively easier to chalk out the agile journey to streamline the operational imperatives.

Similar to all other transformations, the agile journey can also start small and be applied on targeted initiatives and projects. As an example, one of the emerging themes that came out of the businesses trying to diversify and digitize was to reconfigure the online commerce model.

1. Getting the objectives ironed out: launch e-commerce operations with an integrated technology architecture to manage catalog, production & shoots, warehouse operations, last-mile deliveries and customer service seamlessly. Build an operation plan that integrates various metrics such as order volumes, basket size, customer retention, cohort performance, days to deliver, supplier payment days, etc. in one view so that the complex machinery can be visualized in one go to drive cross-functional alignment.
2. Managing talent system: develop an understanding on who can deliver what. Play on the strengths and identify development needs. Create growth opportunities to motivate the workforce toward the new online commerce journey. Leverage external expertise, build knowledge transfer process to further enrich the experience of the workforce. Utilize platforms, build partnerships that can enable solve the talent puzzle.
3. Building cross-functional teams: craft out initiatives, develop potential outcomes, learn from past project failures and successes, identify needed capabilities, mobilize resources and drive the outcome with clear ROI model i.e. how much are we investing to execute on a desired outcome.
4. Iterating rapidly: customers want pay-on-delivery then partner with a service provider that can provide hardware infrastructure; returns process needs manual data pulls from the customer service team then integrate CRM with last-mile delivery management system; top 10 items inventory at risk of getting out-of-stock then build reorder stock process and align supplier incentives to ship faster. Identify and prioritize tasks in tangible actions and assign it to the parent team. Drive daily, weekly, bi-weekly tech and operation sprints to iterate faster.
5. Deploy integrated tools: roll-out integrated collaborative tools to not only focus on project management but also to take care of talent on-boarding, and knowledge exchange.
6. Fast Decision framework: build a hybrid decision making structure. Identify what gets driven in a centralized vs. decentralized manner. Moreover, install centrally empowered project managers that can drive fast local decisions.

Becoming agile is a very fundamental undertaking and needs a well-orchestrated execution and technology support. Make one initiative succeed, the others will follow.

About StrategyConnect

StrategyConnect is an agile technology platform that enables businesses execute strategic & tech projects via smart talent management and on-demand marketplace. Our supply network comes from leading professional services firms and tech giants. Our clients represent a pool of relentless high impact executives willing to go the extra mile in delivering value and fundamental business shifts. Visit strategyconnect.co for more details.