Agility is a Company’s Best Defense against Black Swans
Mother Nature rules. In his scientific observations, Charles Darwin found that the surviving species will be those that are most agile in adapting to changes. The same can be said about businesses. In markets where black swans will be increasingly common, a company’s response should comprise these three elements: more cohesion internally, greater adaptive capacity and exceptional integration with customers.
Fortunately, there are some approaches that have proven effective for formulating that response. We are referring to the well-known agile movement. Originating in the software world, this movement focuses on reducing development cycles. It has since become a source of inspiration for companies striving to be competitive in the market.
The movement essentially aimed to address the fact that processes were slow, cumbersome and burdened by excessive regulation, control and planning. Software developers were using the waterfall method, which required completing one stage before moving onto the next. We still see this same rigidity playing out between company divisions or functions when they are configured as silos.
Agile has expanded out from software development into other parts of the business. The movement provides excellent principles that not only improve agility but also solve endemic problems facing many companies.
We will now outline the foundational principles of the movement and illustrate how they can solve many business challenges that endanger the sustainability of companies in black swan environments:
- Consists of small interdisciplinary groups to break down silos.
- Customer-centric perspective to create more perceived value in problem solving.
- Short-cycle delivery for more frequent iterations.
- Opening of windows to incorporate new information to help solve problems and improve adaptability.
- Autonomous teams with knowledge and decision-making capacity that increase the speed of decision-making.
- Teams that work in the same physical space to promote collective intelligence.
- Collaborative environment within the team, since everyone shares ownership of the final result.
- The team challenges itself on a regular basis to improve the way they work, which favors continuous learning and the feeling of ownership.
As a result of social confinement, the requirement of physical presence in the office has become more flexible. Before any of this, many companies had already made strides in the layout of their office spaces to promote collaborative work. One aspect that still needs progress is to incorporate the agile principles in everyday work.
With a severe recession now upon us, the fight for survival will intensify in a worrisome way. This scenario presents the perfect opportunity to push new ways of working that benefit everyone: customers, employees and company. To survive, companies will need to accelerate their assimilation of all the above-mentioned principles in the way they work … starting with the executive committee and the board of directors, for being exemplary and to leverage their work.
