The Importance Of Individual Agility

Individual agility equals organizational agility

“You can't build an adaptable organization without adaptable people” Gary Hamel

‘Agility’ is a common factor that binds all successful employees—across time, geographies, and generations—together. Their agility factor, along with their resilience and nimbleness, makes them an asset for their companies. They are considered the building blocks of a thriving work culture and the ‘driving force’ for their organizations.

Who are agile employees?

In the professional world, many people find it difficult to embrace change. The moment any change happens, they tend to lose their emotional balance, which causes unnecessary stress to them as well as everyone associated with them.

On the other hand,

For example, in a manufacturing company, there are some people who keep experimenting with various delivery options by shipping the same product in different ways. In a bank, there are some employees who are cross-trained so that they can also dabble in customer service role, when required.

Now, the question is: how individual agility equals organizational agility?

In today’s fiercely competitive market, it is very difficult for any company to retain its market position and ‘edge’ factor only through its services/products. To stay competitive and future-ready, every organization has to explore and innovate. Therefore, organizations require agile workforce who can show agility in every aspect, right from critical thinking and working to taking decisions to solving problems.

Gone are the days when “Work smarter, not harder” was just an adage. Nowadays, it is a ‘success mantra’ that every professional should adhere to. Research shows that agile employees know better how to get a job done smartly. Further, their well awareness of the changing business landscape, technical advancements, and evolving customer needs helps their organizations capitalize on the ever-evolving marketplace, instead of being limited by

It has been found that agile organizations tend to empower and encourage their employees more to improve, explore and innovate. In such organizations, the cross-pollination of thinking and people among various disciplines and industries is very common, which ultimately contributes to organizational as well as professional agility.

On the other hand, organizations bounded by process and hierarchy often find it difficult to take the full advantage of evolving and emerging market opportunities and situations. Therefore, quite understandably, their market position erodes. Say for example Kodak who was unable to move into the digital space well on the time to retain its market leadership position.

Given the growing importance of employees’ agility in maintaining organizational agility, talent managers in leading organizations are equipping employees with necessary skillsets. According to PwC's "People strategy for the digital age: A new take on talent," 81% of CEOs always look at preparing their workforce with new skillsets through learning programs, while 81% seek a broader range of skill sets at the time of hiring.

How to develop individual