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What can scale-ups teach us about agility?

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In their recent study, “The balancing act: Organizational agility in fast-growing international ventures,” our Agile Lab’s Head, Birgit Hagen, Pervez N. Ghauri, and Valentina Macovei investigated how fast-growing ventures use agility for continued growth.

Key insights:

1. Arrangement for Flexibility and Stability

  • Rule: Balance flexibility with stability by embedding both into the organizational structure.
  • How? Create adaptable frameworks and simple rules that guide while supporting rapid response to change.

2. Foster Cognitive Flexibility for Proactive Learning

  • Rule: Encourage cognitive flexibility to spot and interpret new opportunities. This involves shifting perspectives from blending old and new knowledge and experience.
  • How? Engage in continuous sensing and sense-making of change, questioning assumptions and learning from each change.

3. Leverage Relational and Structural Flexibility

  • Rule: Build a network of “light-bound” relationships, enabling the organization to adjust partner and stakeholder connections as needed.
  • How? Design internal structures to be lean and cross-functional. Use role flexibility, cross-training, and self-organizing teams. Identify the ‘right’ partners and harmonize and cultivate relationships.

4. Empower Teams through Political Flexibility

  • Rule: Shift decision-making authority downwards, ensuring that decisions are based on merit rather than hierarchy.
  • How? Support a culture of empowerment where resources are allocated based on skill and need, fostering responsiveness across all levels.

5. Develop Responsiveness with Selective Adaptation

  • Rule: Respond selectively to changes, prioritizing “right timing” over instant reaction to all stimuli.
  • How? Focus on evaluating alternatives, using tested heuristics or co-creation with customers and partners to guide decisions.

6. Create a Culture of Change and Selective Adaptation

  • Rule: Embed learning, improvement, and change as core values within the organization’s culture.
  • How? Communicate an identity of change while implementing a scalable strategy, based on a standardized core model with selective adaptations.

7. Balance Speed and Strategic Timing

  • Rule: Differentiate between moments that require fast action and those that benefit from strategic patience.
  • How? Use the “take time to understand, fast to act” approach, where learning and strategic evaluation precede rapid decision-making, execution, and adaptation. Ensure Continuity and Resilience through Efficient Scaling

8. Ensure Continuity and Resilience through Efficient Scaling

  • Rule: Maintain continuity by scaling operations resource-efficiently, ensuring growth without disruption.
  • How? Build scalable systems, processes, and training programs that allow for fast extension or replication in new segments or markets.