Agility is on everyone’s lips – online searches for “agile transformation” yielded around 10 million hits in 2020, and the stories of well-known pioneers circulated widely. But is this just hype, or are there real benefits to be gained? And if pursuing agility yields benefits, what is the recipe for success?

To find answers, some studies were conducted that reached 2,190 respondents across industries and geographies. Respondents were asked what, if anything, their companies did in practice to advance agility, and what hard numbers they achieved regarding business impact. The organizations fell into two broad categories: the first group consisted of organizations with no agile transformations’ efforts in process, or having recently completed an agile transformation beyond a few individual teams. Two-thirds of those pursuing a transformation, however, said that their organizations were just treading water, taking no decisive action and consequently achieving little or no business impact.

Within the second group, a selection of organizations (represented by 10 percent of the entire sample) that were driving highly successful agile transformation. This group was embracing agility at scale to create and capture value instead of treating agile as team-level experiments in discrete departments. This means reimaging the entire organization as a network of high-performing teams, each going after clear, end-to-end business-oriented outcomes, and possessing all of the skills needed to deliver, such as a bank boosting the performance of customer journeys; a retailer analyzing turns and earns of product categories; a mining company reviewing production-and safety-process steps; an oil and gas company planning wells; a machinery player undertaking full product management, from R&D to go-to-market; or a teleoperator simplifying products.

However, agility at scale goes beyond adding more agile teams and team-level practices. The broader operating model, the connective tissue between and across the teams, also needs to be transformed. The organizations driving highly successful agile transformations made sure to do that by building an effective, stable backbone. This means optimizing the full operating model across strategy, structures, processes, people, and technology by going after flat and fluid structures built around high-performing cross-functional teams, instituting more frequent prioritization and resource-allocation processes, building a culture that enables psychological safety, and decoupling technology stacks.

Enterprise agility is thus a paradigm shift away from multilayered reporting structures, rigid annual budgeting, compliance-oriented culture, separation of business and technology, and other traits dominating organizations from the past hundred years. If this is true and not just a hype, a discontinuity of this magnitude should provide an opportunity for organizations to turn their operating models into a competitive advantage – as did early adopters of lean in the 1990s.

Two major findings emerged from some research:

• Agility results in a step change in performance and makes it possible to overtake born-agile organizations – Highly successful agile transformations typically delivered around 30 percent gains in efficiency, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and operational performance; made the organization five to ten times faster; and turbocharged innovation. Organizations that achieved a highly successful agile transformation had a three times higher chance of becoming a top-quartile performer among peers than those who overtook the born-agile organizations: they not only had a higher chance of becoming a top-quartile performer but also had a greater chance of achieving a more mature operating model across all dimensions.
• Instead of waiting for agility to happen bottom-up, business leaders must take charge – research and surveys asked respondents in detail what actions they took before and during their agile transformations. Research analysis then compared the close to 300 highly successful transformations with the 580 less successful ones to distill what they did differently. Four elements stood out:

• Ensure the top team gets it. Before you start, spend sufficient time up front to ensure the top team masters the concepts and can lead the charge.
• Be intentional and go after value. Be clear on how agile creates value and have the top team lead the organization to pursue it in a structured manner instead of relying on bottom-up piloting and waiting for agility at scale to emerge.
• Go beyond agile teams to build connective tissue. In the scope of your transformation, rewire the entire operating model (strategy, structure, process, people, and tech) to make sure it supports and connects rather than holds back the team.
• Maintain a high speed and use front-runners. Complete the main phase of the agile transformation in less than 18 months to preserve momentum and avoid exhausting the organization; go even faster in selecting front-runner areas to demonstrate commitment and early results.

Highly successful agile transformations delivered significant performance improvement

Highly successful agile transformation results in a step change in performance, with impact achieved in multiple dimensions.

Done right, agility enables a step change in business performance and puts it in a position to surpass even born-agile organizations

Dr Pete Mhlanga

Managing Director, MCTG Consulting

PhD Law,

Harvard Professional & Executive Development

LLM (Public International Law|)

LLB (Company Law, Tax Law, and Employment Law)