I am working on the materials for a two-day class on organizational agility and have adopted the following definition:

Organizational Agility is your enterprise’s capacity to be consistently adaptable without having to change.  It is the efficiency with which your organization can respond to nonstop change.

What do you think about this definition? Let’s break it down a bit.

• What does it mean to be consistently adaptable?
• What does “without having to change” look like? What would this look like in the world of sports or the arts?
• What does the phrase “efficiency with which your organization can respond to nonstop change” mean and how does this contrast more traditional change management techniques and methods?

These are interesting questions and I like the idea that agility is a state where we don’t need to change to change. I think a lot of folks confuse agility with change management and being accepting of change. Agile organizations select, manage, and implement changes very well BUT all change accepting organizations are not necessarily agile. What’s the difference?

Agile organizations are set up to regularly adapt – their practices, systems, habits, and goals are nimble and this nimbleness is part of the fabric of how work gets done. There are three types of organizational agility:

• Focus Agility: Having adaptable strategies and goals.
• Resources Agility: Deploying resources (people/roles/structure, processes, financial assets, brands/products) flexibly.
• Performance Agility: Realigning how work gets done (process improvements, culture, skills, measures).

As you tackle the week, think about how agile your organization is and which type of agility you need to cultivate.