This week, we focus on building an agile culture, a requirement for success and, for many, survival.
Why Agility Matters Now
If you are considering the switch to agile, you are not alone. In McKinsey’s article, “Doing vs being: Practical lessons on building an agile culture,” they note that 70% of survey respondents are transforming to agile. The shift is challenging. Processes, systems, and technology are often the most straightforward pieces. With strong guidance and effective collaboration and development tools, you can put agile building blocks in place in a reasonable timeframe. Creating and sustaining an agile culture is the harder work.
Culture is all encompassing. The decisions and actions taken every day must support agility. Misalignments stick out like sore thumbs, and they carry outsized weight in slowing progress.
What It Takes to Build an Agile Culture
As Greg Besner outlines in The Culture Quotient, there are a few areas to focus on to increase agility. These practices help leaders and teams make agility a habit.
Normalize Ambiguity
Accept change and unpredictability. Help your team feel comfortable and grounded when plans shift. Set clear guardrails, define decision rights, and communicate the “why” behind changes. The goal is confidence in motion, not perfect certainty.
Embrace Agile Mindsets
Ryan Gottfredson, in his book, “Viewpoint: How to Develop an Agile Workforce,” proposes three mindsets that support agility:
- Growth mindset: The belief that one can improve and develop abilities through effort and feedback.
- Open mindset: The ability to listen and consider other perspectives and data, even when they challenge current views.
- Promotional, or proactive, mindset: A focus on improving and advancing, rather than on simply avoiding losses.
Leaders model these mindsets first. Reinforce them in 1:1s, team rituals, and performance conversations.
Prepare Employees Through Learning and Development
Invest in continuous training so team members are equipped for their roles today, and as those roles evolve with the organization and their career paths. Blend workshops, coaching, and on-the-job practice. Prioritize skills that enable adaptive execution: prioritization, cross-functional collaboration, and feedback.
Continuously Monitor and Respond
Collect employee feedback on your culture, and run a short retrospective after each project. Build a simple HR dashboard that tracks leading indicators, such as engagement, cycle time, and decision latency. Use it to adjust norms and practices in real time to support the level of agility the organization requires.
Make Agility a Cultural Habit
Culture is the enabler for all initiatives. Putting the right time, energy, and resources into building an agile culture is a requirement for success. If you are leading an agile transformation, we can help. Sage and Summit supports leaders and teams with leadership development, team coaching, and executive coaching that make agility practical and sustainable.
