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APRIL 2015

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The Journey Begins: The Quest to be Focused, Fast and Flexible

By Tom O'Shea, CMC, Organizational Agility Practice Lead

PRICELESS...just like those fabled moments trumpeted in credit card commercials. The book is finished and headed to production! While I think our book is very, very good and will be a valuable read for any leader looking to make agility a competitive advantage in this brave new world ... I am actually referring to the feeling of finally finishing the book. Some of our friends, colleagues and clients know that this has been the ultimate paradox - a book about agility that has not been the most agile in the making. We finally had to convert the status of the book and "treat it like a client" to get the TLC needed for completion.

FOCUSED, FAST & FLEXIBLE will be coming out early this summer

and will serve as a guided tour for those leaders interested in embarking on the Agility Advantage journey. The book is intended as a practice guide leaders can use to better understand the dynamics and implications of running a business in this Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world. The book will serve as a roadmap that any leader can use to begin to engage, envision and plan the agility transformation journey with their teams. The roadmap is built around The Agile Model® framework detailing not only the five key drivers for agility (anticipating change, generating confidence, initiating action, liberating thinking and evaluating results) but also the fifteen agile capabilities that will create the juggernaut of real and sustainable advantage.

Leaders interested in applying insights from fifteen years of research and practical experience decoding the dynamics of agility will appreciate the practical suggestions offered at the end of each chapter as well as a section devoted to gaining traction and sustainability.

Click here for an excerpt from the book ...

Waterfall-Teamwork vs Agile-Teamwork

By Mike Richardson, Team Agility Practice Lead

"The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed" (William Gibson). The future of agile-teamwork is already here it's just not evenly distributed - many leaders, teams and organizations are still stuck in waterfall-teamwork. "Waterfall" vs "Agile" contrasts two fundamentally different modes of teamwork and this two part article will help you understand the difference - look out for part 2 next month.

The future of "Agile" teamwork is already here, perhaps best embodied in the field of "Agile Software Development", which is already huge. This was born out of a 2001 meeting of software gurus resulting in the 4 core values of the Agile Manifesto:

We have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

>>READ MORE

Agility in Washington: The Dynamic Capability to Sense and Respond

By Ben Baran, Ph.D., Agility Analytics Practice Lead

At a time when many Americans are dissatisfied with government performance and fewer than 40 percent view either of the two major political parties as favorable, the words "agility" and "Washington" don't seem to fit well together.ⁱ

But what about a different Washington-George, not D.C.?

Looking back upon the American Revolution, one can argue that American success in achieving independence was due to the operational and strategic mistakes of the British. That argument has plenty of merit. Another argument, however, is that the American General George Washington operated with a posture of strategic agility, giving him and his forces the dynamic capability to sense and respond to the environment they faced. That claim also has merit.

^{i. [Lydia Saad, "Neither Major Party Cracks Favorability in Latest Poll," March 16, 2015]}

>> READ MORE

Agility Affiliate Network: Bob Prescott

By Nick Horney, Ph.D., Leadership Agility Practice Lead

Dr. Robert K. Prescott, SPHR has spent twenty years in industry and fifteen years in teaching and consulting roles. He has been an Agility Consulting Affiliate since 2002. He is currently Graduate Faculty of Management at the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, U.S.A. In this role, Bob is responsible for teaching graduate level courses in both the MBA and Masters of Human Resources (MHR) programs.

Bob co-authored the books The Strategic Human Resource Leader: How to Prepare Your Organization for the 6 Key Trends Shaping the Future (Davies-Black, 1998) and HR Transformation: Demonstrating Leadership in the Face of Future Trends (Davies-Black/SHRM, 2009), and the Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management - Volume One (Wiley, 2012).

As an affiliate, Bob has collaborated with Agility Consulting for several key initiatives:

Designed and delivered (multiple times) a graduate business school course organized around The AGILE Model®.
Contributed to the design and delivery of The Agility Advantage Seminar for an Agility Consulting client.
Co-authored the article published by People and Strategy Journal - From Change Projects to Change Agility (2014).

>>READ MORE

Creating Agility in a VUCA World!

Read & See More from Others Thought-Leaders

April 2015 McKinsey Report:
How to beat the transformation odds

Innovate or Die!

Jeremy Gutsche speaks about CIRCULARITY