We are living in a time of great change. Bigger, faster, complex, cross-functional, and multi-disciplinary change. But at the same time, we are more connected and processing more information than we ever had in the past.

To be successful in this environment of rapid, concurrent, and never-ending change, organizations must grow their change agility not just to thrive, but to survive. In fact, senior leaders are starting to acknowledge how important agility is to their success. Ability to adapt to change will be a key source of competitive advantage in the future; and organizational agility is critical to business success and growing in importance over time. The Project Management Institute’s Organizational Agility Report introduced the following equation: Greater organizational agility = Better performance = Improved competitive advantage.

The winners of the future will be those who can out-change the competition and the market. While agility is getting plenty of publicity, there is still a gap in understanding what agility really means and what attributes agile organizations share.

“Agility” has certainly gained buzz status in recent years. Across the literature, you’ll discover many different definitions of agility. Below are just a few:

• “The power of moving quickly and easily; nimbleness” - Random House Dictionary.
• “The capacity to identify and capture opportunities more quickly than rivals do” - McKinsey Quarterly article “Competing through organizational agility”.
• “Take advantage of change – whether planned or unexpected – without ever letting it sideline you” - PricewaterhouseCoopers article “How to build an agile foundation for change”.
• “The ability to transform information into insight in response to market movements” - The Economist article “Organizational agility: How business can survive and thrive in turbulent times”.
• “The result of integrating alertness to changes with a capability to use resources in responding to such changes, all in a timely, flexible, affordable, relevant manner” - Holsapple and Li article “Understanding Organizational Agility: A Work-Design Perspective”.
• “Nimble organization: One that has a sustained ability to quickly and effectively respond to the demands of change while continually delivering high performance” - Daryl Conner article “The Characteristics of Nimble Execution”.
• “An always present ability to manage multiple, complex portfolios of change” - Accenture podcast “Corporate agility, Working at the speed of opportunity”.
• “The speed and ability of a business to identify and react to internal and external events that could and do occur.” - EYGM Limited article “Optimizing and balancing corporate agility for insurers”.

Each of these definitions offer insights about the definition of agility, and there are some common themes that emerged across many of the definitions. We have synthesized these definitions to arrive at six definition components:

1. Always present ability in the fabric of the organization.
2. Out changing before the competition.
3. Anticipating/tuning in to coming changes.
4. Increasing speed/quickness at change.
5. Both proactive (planned) and reactive (unplanned).
6. Minimal disruption; not sidelining you.

While there is not a singular view or definition of “organizational agility,” there is value and added depth to the “agility” conversation from exploring the various components of the definition to see which make sense and will resonate with your colleagues, coworkers, and collaborators.

What are the attributes of an Agile Organization?

1. Anticipates and plans for change.
2. Fast in decision making.
3. Effectively prioritizes and manages the change portfolio (All changes they have to go through)
4. Effectively initiates change efforts.
5. Enhances risk management practices.
6. Has human capital strategies supporting agility.
7. Rapidly develops and deploys new capabilities.
8. Encourages cross-organizational collaboration.
9. Has reduced or eliminated silos.
10. Has developed and embedded a change management capability.

The velocity of change is not slowing down and the importance of delivering expected results and outcomes in times of change is only increasing. In order to out-change the competition, customer demands and the markets, organizations need to take seriously the effort of building their change agility to equip themselves for what lies ahead.

Agility is an accelerator of execution and a capability that you need to develop if you really want to have a sustainable business.

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