The Agile Confusion

“If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.” ― Tom Peters

The Agility Pain

With what feels like accelerating instability all around us, fueled by technology induced market shifts, pandemics, strained supply chains, and political conflict, most businesses seek to significantly increase their ability to adapt to, or ideally leverage, the given market dynamics.

In this context we observe one phrase that is repeatedly causing significant confusion throughout leading organizations: Agile.

To most people agile is a perfect word to describe some of the desired traits to strive for. Just consider the realm of sports, where being agile is a core strength for goal-getters on the soccer field. Or nature, where being agile is key to survival for many animals across all stages of the food chain.

Yet, with businesses intensively seeking new ways to increase their ability to sense and respond to change, the seemingly fitting and harmless phrase of „Agile“ is not the answer. Far from it.

Agile ≠ Agility

First, Agile is a given and well defined term that describes a way of operating a very specific form of business: Modern Software Development.

Now you could argue with Marc Andreessen that „Software is eating the world“, therefore anything that is well proven and successful in this realm must help elsewhere too. But blindly generalizing a specific methodology to a much more complex situation, like running businesses, is doomed to fail.

FlexOrg ≠ Agility

Second, with the Agile confusion introduced, let’s make it worse and add another seemingly harmless phrase: Flexible Organization (or FlexOrg). This sounds like the ideal solution to all the above, right? If we need more agility we just install a FlexOrg and live happily ever after. Unfortunately this is not working either.

“What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.” ― Salvador Dalí

In the following, we seek to contradict the artistic intention of Salvador Dali and hope to simply but fundamentally clarify the difference between three deeply interconnected, yet very different, concepts: Agile, Agility and FlexOrg.

Defining Agile

In our view, implementing Agile is about introducing and scaling very specific agile methods (e.g. Scrum, Kanban, SAFE) at team or business unit levels.

Being typically used in standing software development teams or organizations, the main goal is to raise the relevance and acceptance of deliverables from the teams involved, limited to (and optimized for) a very specific type of work (=development).

The focus of Agile is on how scope and tasks are managed within and across teams. Key ingredients applied are for example Time-boxes, Sprints, Backlogs and Rituals.

On organizational scope Agile is applied within teams or groups of teams (No, not talking about Microsoft Teams here).

Defining Agility

Agility (or Business Agility, Organizational Agility) is about introducing means to increase the overall ability of an organization to quickly adapt to or drive market changes.

Used in the context of companies that operate in unstable, converging or rapidly evolving markets, the goal is to reduce barriers (e.g. inflexible structures) and increase the effective ability to operate change at all levels and across all business areas.

The focus of Agility is on how the business is managed, steered, and evolved overall. Key ingredients involved include clear Purpose and Direction, transparency and active management of Value Chains, fit for purpose Operating Models, rebuilding Leadership towards Distributed Leadership, and establishing a robust Learning Culture.

Looking at the scope within businesses then Agility is applied to a complete organization or a substantial business area.

Defining FlexOrg

Implementing a Flexible Organization (or FlexOrg) is about creating an organizational structure that replaces static hierarchical teams with flexible resource allocation by separating functional and disciplinary leadership roles.

The focus of FlexOrgs is on how resources are organized, developed and deployed. Typical ingredients are modern forms of team structures like Chapters, Squads or Tribes.

Today, FlexOrgs are typically applied at the business area level, thus spawning many teams but not encompassing whole business units or organizations.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

There is no inherent good or bad in the concepts above, all have their application and reasons to exist. But it gets ugly quickly - and often profoundly - if concepts are applied blindly without understanding their domain, strengths, weaknesses, and how they are connected.

Let’s get this clear:

• In order to increase Agility, Agile methods may help. But only if applied for the right type of work and at the right level. Not every team needs Agile, and for many situations it will actually be counterproductive.
• In order to become more agile, FlexOrgs may help. But only if applied thoughtfully and accompanied by the required changes in leadership and how the business is operated.
• In order to increase the ability of an organization to innovate, all of the above may help. But you are looking at a larger change here - none of these will solve the challenge alone, and even the combination does not help without a clear strategy and deep understanding of the dynamics required to be innovative at scale.

“I try to stay in a constant state of confusion just because of the expression it leaves on my face.” ― Johnny Depp

Common Language

Feeling confused is always an opportunity to learn. This article does not seek to solve the Agility challenge most organizations face, but to help reduce confusion and enable deeper understanding.

Most of all we encourage you to discuss and clarify the phrases you use within your environment. The clearer you are, and the more you speak the same language, the easier it becomes to move forward together.

Also we invite you to share your experiences in response to this article, or ask questions, so we can learn more from your insights, and a conversation that is helpful for a larger audience.

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This article is co-authored by Andrea Maier (Deutsche Telekom) and Michael Bednar-Brandt.