The global leader for creating 
AGILE organizations!


FEBRUARY 2015

Agility Consulting & Training Practice Leaders
Tom O'Shea, Organizational Agility Practice Leader
 
Since 2001, Agility Consulting & Training (ACT) has been focused on building a research-based body of knowledge with a corresponding analytical toolbox.  Our work has  centered around three critical domains for building overall enterprise agility - individual leaders, ad-hoc and natural teams, and the overall organization in alignment with its strategy.  If you examine the practice areas on our website, you will see this structure being enhanced to help us accentuate our focus on AGILITY ANALYTICS.  Research and analysis has been a strong concentration and differentiator for ACT since our inception.  We will soon be entering our fifteenth year of dedicated focus on helping leaders and clients figure out how to drive success by being more focused, fast and flexible throughout!  Consequently, our data, research and practical client based experience is extensive and rich.
 
In order to continue to drive our thought-leadership and value-to-clients to even higher levels, as the agility premium and imperative expands, we are designating Practice Leaders for each of these areas.  ACT principals Nick Horney, PhD and Tom O'Shea, CMC will head up the Leadership Agility and Organizational Agility practice areas.  Mike Richardson, Agility partner based in San Diego, heads up our Team Agility practice area and Ben Baran, PhD based near Cleveland, now heads up our Agility Analytics practice area where he has already devoted five years leading extensive research for new products and validation projects.

You will see more information in upcoming newsletters about Mike and Ben as well as some of the very talented affiliates we have around the world. 

The C2C of AGILE Teamwork (from Conversation-Flow 2 Cash-Flow)  
  
A team's success or failure with cash-flow is caused by its success or failure with conversation-flow.  An agile team is always asking "are we talking about the right things, in the right way, at the right time, with the right quantity, quality and cadence of conversation-flow?"  That's essential to be focused, fast and flexible in an increasingly VUCA world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity).  You show me a company in which cash-flow derailed and I will show you a company in which conversation-flow derailed. 

Just look at Sony.  From a high of nearly $160 in year 2000, its share price has been languishing in the $20 range, where it was back in 1987!  Sony was on the leading edge of portable music (remember the Walkman and then MP3 players).  Not anymore.  Sony used to be very strong in laptops and TVs.  Not anymore.  With a little nudging, on his way out the door in 2012, the prior CEO, Welshman, Sir Howard Stringer reminded us of a quote he had said a few years earlier, that at Sony, "The love affair with the status-quo continued even after the quo had lost its status!"  Yes, the status-quo has lost its status, as has status-slow, it's now status-flow!  Where your conversation-flow goes, your cash-flow will follow!  They fell asleep at the wheel! >>READ MORE  

Strike a Match: Agile Improvisation in the Face of Disaster  

By Ben Baran, Agility Analytics Practice Leader 

 

On August 5, 1949, a team of 15 smokejumpers parachuted into the Mann Gulch near the Missouri River in Montana to fight a fire that had started the previous day. At first appraisal, fighting the fire seemed a simple task. But thus began one of the worst disasters in the modern history of wildfire suppression in which all but two of the team members lost their lives.  

  

Immortalized in Norman Maclean's book Young Men and Fire,  in the folk song Cold Missouri  Waters by James Keelaghan and in famed organizational scholar Karl Weick's scholarly analysis,  the incident is a tragic-yet-fascinating account of a team attempting to sense and respond to a rapidly evolving environment. It's a story of improvisation, counter-intuitive action and collapsed team structures.

 

According to Maclean's account, the team was beginning to evaluate the fire and plan an attack when the team leader, Wagner Dodge, saw that the wildfire had breached the valley and was approaching their direction rapidly. Quickly, the situation devolved into an all-out race to a rocky area at the top of the ridge, with flames chasing them at a rate of approximately 610 feet per minute.

 

That's when Dodge took two actions that both highlight extreme moments of agility.   

>> READ MORE


Nick Horney selected as a Judge for Chief Learning Officer magazine

 

Nick Horney has been selected as a Judge for Chief Learning Officer magazine's LearningElite program for 2015, which honors the best organizations for learning and development.

This robust, peer-reviewed ranking and benchmarking program recognizes those organizations that employ exemplary workforce development strategies that deliver significant business results. Now in its tenth year, the LearningElite Awards identify industry leaders who have demonstrated excellence in the design and delivery of employee development programs.  
 
Nick's selection, for the second year in a row, is a result of his past experience serving in similar roles with Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and USA Today's Quality Cup Award.

If you would like information on how your enterprise could benefit from best thinking in organizational agility check out our Organizational Agility Audit process or call us to discuss your organization's needs. 

Creating Agility in a VUCA World!
Read & See More from Others Thought-Leaders
 

Margaret Heffernan: Dare to dissagree 

Nick Horney
[email protected]  +1.336.286.7250 
Agile Model
3816 Pinetop Road
Greensboro, NC 27410
Tom O'Shea
[email protected]  +1.336.282.1211 

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