The Agility Shift

As contrary as it sounds, "planning" -- as we traditionally understand the term--can be the worst thing a company can do. Consider that volatile weather events disrupt trusted supply chains, markets, and promised delivery schedules. Ever-shifting geo-political tensions, as well as internal political upheaval within U.S. and global governments, derail long-planned new ventures. Technology failures block opportunities. Competitors suddenly change their product or release date; your team cannot meet the pace of innovations in your market niche, leaving you sidelined. There are myriad ways in the current business environment for a company's well-considered business plans to go awry. Most business schools continue to prepare managers to be effective in stable and predictable environments, conditions that, if they ever existed at all, are long gone. The Agility Shift shows business leaders exactly how to make the radical mindset and strategy shift necessary to create an agile, entrepreneurial organization that can innovate and thrive in complex, ever-changing contexts. As author Pamela Meyer explains, there is much more involved than a reconfiguration of the org chart and job descriptions. It requires relinquishing the illusion of control at the very foundation of most management training and business practice. Despite most leaders' approaches, "Agility is not simply accelerated planning." Unlike many agility books on the market, The Agility Shift provides specific, actionable strategies and tactics for leaders at all levels of the organization to put into practice immediately to improve agility and achieve results.

Leadership Agility is the master competency needed for sustained success in today’s complex, fast-paced business environment. Richly illustrated with stories based on original research and decades of work with clients, this groundbreaking book identifies five levels that leaders move through in developing their agility. Significantly, only 10% have mastered the level of agility needed for consistent effectiveness in our turbulent era of global competition. Written in an engaging, down-to-earth style, this book not only provides a map that guides readers in identifying their current level of agility. It also provides practical advice and concrete examples that show managers and leadership development professionals how they can bring greater agility to the initiatives they take every day.

This guide shows readers how to transform a traditional organization into an evolutionary one with a framework and mindset that offer a new way of leading and approaching change. Now more than ever, society is demanding change, and organizations are being asked to shift into more conscious and agile business practices. Yet, most of what people believe about leadership, effective workplaces, and how to create lasting change is either incomplete or outright incorrect. And even if the desire to change is there, understanding of how to achieve it is elusive. This book holds the key. It introduces the Shift Evolutionary Leadership Framework (SELF), which helps leaders create the understanding and application needed to evolve high performance. At the core of the book are dozens of business patterns that cut across seven dimensions of organizational functioning. The traps of traditional organizations are contrasted with the high-performance practices of evolutionary organizations. Authors Michael Sahota and Audree Tata Sahota explain the steps of leading beyond change—evolving beyond servant leadership to make the inner shift needed to unlock the practical skills and techniques. Whether readers call this shift business agility, Teal Agility, evolutionary, or the future of work, it is possible to create high-performing organizations filled with energized people who are able to surf the waves of change.

From Workplace to Playspace is about visionary, courageous, innovative, and persistent organizations that challenge long-held preconceptions about the incompatibility of workplace and playspace. Each day organizations across industries and with wide-ranging missions are discovering that playspace is the space they can and must create every day at work if they are to think creatively, question old assumptions, respond effectively to the unexpected, and engage all to work at the top of their talent. Filled with case examples from such organizations as Learning Curve International, Google, Chicago Public Schools, Umpqua Bank, and Threadless, the author provides both the conceptual framework and the principles to guide practitioners to create playspace for innovating, learning and changing in their organizations.

"This book should be required reading for leaders looking to implement Agile in their organizations." - Sam Brilliant, Sr. Program Manager, Navy Federal Credit Union. Agile transformation is hard to achieve. It is especially difficult when the common notion of what that means is misconstrued. What many are calling Agile is not Agile, and they don't even know it. This misunderstanding leads to misapplication. The result is that true Agile transformation remains elusive. It's time to rethink your approach! What you do matters, but why you do it matters more. This book will help you learn from the mistakes of the "common wisdom" and discover a proven path to organizational agility where Mindset Transcends Methodology. "Jimmie has a knack for challenging the common wisdom and helping teams think differently about what success looks like." - John Laub, President, Gray Leaf Technology Consultants. To solve a problem, you must first understand the problem. The first half of the book contrasts the true meaning and intent of Agile with what most organizations are actually doing in order to help you understand where your organization sits within that spectrum. Armed with an understanding of the problem, the latter half of the book provides a tried and proven approach to moving teams and organizations toward a genuine Agile transformation, and ultimately a Timeless Agility. Timeless Agility is the outcome of a mindset that transcends methodology. It consistently allows you to effectively and efficiently identify, produce, and deliver the next right thing, regardless of methodology trends. To attain Timeless Agility, to reach for that elusive organizational agility, your entire organization needs to think differently. Agile transformation, therefore, is going to be more about transforming minds than practices. Your understanding impacts what you do and how you do it. What you believe and value is the foundation from which all else derives. How you do your work will change over time as you learn and grow, but why you do what you do transcends all of those changes. Very few organizations have actually achieved organization-wide transformation. Many are on the wrong path altogether. Perhaps the common approaches and thought processes taught are not necessarily what you should emulate. To get over that proverbial hump, it is time to look at this from a different perspective. This book will show you Agile from a different lens than you may be wearing right now. Embrace it and evaluate for yourself.

Shows how to unlock the massive efficiency savings and productivity gains by reframing the approach to flexible working by concentrating on workforce agility. We know that organizations don’t need the same number of workers 9-5, five days a week 52 weeks a year. We know that not all of the best talent will work when and where we want. We know that command and control Taylorism stifles innovation and creativity. So why do we keep thinking of flexible working as a cost to the organization? A simple mindset shift is all that is required to grasp the opportunity that smart organizations are already exploiting. Stop thinking about “flexible working” and start thinking about “workforce agility”. By creating win-win working practices you can attract the best talent by offering the flexibility they crave and secure the agile, just-in-time workforce that can get the job done. The Agile Future Forum, a business-to-business initiative started by 22 founder members – mostly CEOS of big employers including BT, Lloyds Banking Group, Cisco, Tesco, KPMG, HM Treasury and Ford – have conducted case studies and a collated best practice from world class organisations which show that a more agile approach to flexible working not only delivers better performance but can also save between 3 and 13% of personnel costs. The Agility Mindset blends the insights of scores of CEOs, along with the frontline experience of practising managers to create this very practical guide. Based on rigorous research, but packed with practical diagnostics and frameworks, the book shows you how to create a fit for purpose workplace in a world where only the agile will flourish.

A research-based approach to achieving long-term profitability in business What does it take to guarantee success and profitability over time? Authors Christopher G. Worley, a senior research scientist, Thomas D. Williams, an executive advisor, and Edward E. Lawler III, one of the country's leading management experts, set out to find the answer. In The Agility Factor: Building Adaptable Organizations for Superior Performance the authors reveal the factors that drive long-term profitability based on the practices of successful companies that have consistently outperformed their peers. Of the 234 large companies across 18 industries that were studied, there were few companies that delivered sustained performance across the board. The authors found that across industries, the most successful companies were not the "usual suspects" found in the media, but companies who possessed a quiet agility that allowed them to quickly perceive and respond to changes so that they could continue to grow. Agility gives organizations the ability to adapt to fluctuations in the environment, test possible responses, and implement changes quickly. This book offers specific, research-based case studies to help organizational leaders use agility to achieve sustained profitability and performance while also becoming more adaptable to a changing marketplace. For executives, leaders, consultants, board members and all those responsible for the long-term health of organizations, this insightful guide outlines: The components of agility for business organizations How to successfully build agility within an organization How agility has its foundation in good management practices How to use agility to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace