Strategic Agility

What is Strategic Agility?

The definition of strategic
agility is the ability for
organizations to see shifts
inside the business as well
as externally in the business
environment in which they
operate. Strategic agility is
about staying competitive by
recognizing and capitalizing
on opportunities as well as
identifying potential threats
and mitigating or preventing
them from materializing in
the first place. The
development of strategic
agility will give leaders the
competency to recognize
market changes that could
be good or bad for business
and quickly implement or act
on new ideas.
What Does Strategic Agility Look Like?
Being strategically agile means being the first mover or
fast follower when it comes to creating new services,
products, and offerings to external or internal customers
and clients. Leaders with strategic agility can see and
respond to changes faster than rivals or new players. This
enables them to sustain growth and profitability
performance for the business. Agile leaders anticipate
and deal with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and
ambiguity. Likewise, they are courageous and willing to
take calculated risks, make big bets procuring
opportunities, and actively shaping the future. It is
important for agile leaders to watch for and identify
emerging opportunities as well as proactively develop and
create opportunities.

Every organization goes through cycles when they are

agile, quick, and smart about leveraging their strengths
and their vulnerabilities. However, when leaders or market
conditions change, some companies get caught off guard
and end up giving up market share, experiencing margin
shrinkage, and sometimes becoming extinct. For
example, G.E. was an industry leader for decades and
then encountered challenging times. Microsoft dominated
the technology industry and faced several challenges
from industry players like Google. Turn to the latest
financial market news and you will see organizations and
industries that are experiencing a shifting environment.
How Can I Improve My Strategic Agility?
To improve your strategic agility, embrace and
work to incorporate behaviors related to these
four top components of agility that matter most
in the business world and develop a strategic
agility framework based on these components.

Anticipating
•Shift your focus and begin looking beyond the
immediate state of the business.
•Consistently monitor or review the needs of your
internal and external customers, what they might
need in the future.

Sensing
•Keep a pulse on market conditions and industry
changes and forces that can affect your business
or customer needs.
•Be observant of trends and anomalies that you
see in your workplace, with your customers, and
within the industry.
•Call out patterns that show up in data and
objectively analyze the information that you are
receiving.
Responding
•Respond to customer needs (internal or
external) faster than your competitors.
•Make decisions quickly and efficiently.
•Anticipate possible scenarios and determine
if contingency plans are needed.

Adapting
•Be flexible and open to reworking business
processes and procedures as new market
demands arise or as business changes.
•Improve your organizational agility. Be in a
position to adjust your organizational
structure or environment to handle the
evolution of the market you serve.
Personal Strategic Agility Competencies
Competencies consist of the skills, attributes,
and knowledge that enable you to respond or
act effectively. Leaders with strategic agility
competencies will have the ability to
anticipate and respond to changes or issues
that arise. Below are three competencies that,
when developed and strengthened will
support your personal strategic agility.

Competency 1: Navigating change

Change can cause disruption, difficulty and
new or unexpected challenges. Those
individuals and leaders who can successfully
assimilate and navigate change are able to
capitalize on the benefits and opportunities
that arise when change is needed. To be more
strategically agile,
•Be willing to adopt and support change.
•Be a change agent.
•See the end goal or desired outcome that
change facilitates.
Competency 2: Thinking Strategically
Thinking strategically is about having a broader perspective
about your work, being conscientious of what is shaping it
and figuring out how you can amplify your results. You can
improve your strategic agility by
•Getting out of an operations mindset and stepping back from
day-to-day action.
•Using the power of observation to pick up on emerging
trends that will allow you to contribute unique meaningful
value.
•Determining what forces are at play that might enable or
hinder your progress.
•Planning a course of action and executing on it.
•Aligning your own plans and strategies with the broader
organizational strategy.

Competency 3: Getting Comfortable with Risk

Risk can evoke a lot of emotions, but risk also represents an
unseized opportunity. If you want to develop your strategic
agility, you need to incorporate the ability to see risk, calculate
risk, and decide what appropriate action to take as it relates to
risk. Risk should be managed, not feared.
•Take the emotion out of the risk to see things more clearly.
•Understand the risk for what it is.
•Look at risk as another calculated, go or no-go decision point.
•Understand your own view of risk and how that plays into
your decisions. Are you risk averse, risk neutral, or are you a
risk seeker? This will help you to manage knowing when to
embrace or contain risk and will boost your strategic agility.