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The success of agile organizations from Amazon to General Electric is not hidden from anyone. Many of the largest organizations in the world have injected agile thinking into their organizations, outperforming their competitors. Today, companies and startups are trying to become agile organizations, and in this direction, they must make changes. The hallmark of agile organizations is expanding their products, delivering them quickly to customers, and getting feedback. This article defines the agile organization and reviews its features and benefits. In addition, we will teach you six important steps in forming an agile organization. So stay with us until the end of this article.

What is an Agile organization?

Once the concept of agile operation is understood, the possibility of organizational change becomes easier. In general, an agile organization creates a common goal and vision, accepts change, empowers team networks within its organization, and can easily produce and strengthen its products.

An agile organization focuses on the customer. In other words, agile organizations are customer-centric. A common understanding is shared across such organizations, and team information is freely exchanged. These companies carefully consider and listen to the needs of customers. Also, the employees of these organizations must constantly update their knowledge to form a strong team. In the continuation of this article, we will refer to the characteristics of an agile organization.

Agile organizations can adapt and respond quickly to changing conditions. They have embraced a complex and unpredictable environment with customer-centric rather than profit-oriented, fast-paced learning and decision-making cycles. The networking of capable teams and individuals is driven by shared technology and purpose.

An agile organization is not a common word in the business community. It is a strategic mindset change that dictates rapid processes and product development cycles. The agile organization empowers teams to work to their full potential. Becoming an agile organization begins with changing your mindset. It would help if you distanced yourself from the legacy business ideals of a lubricated machine. This paradigm leaves no room for flexibility, creativity, or innovation. Instead, you should see your organization as exactly what it is: a living being made up of talented people with potential.

Why is it important for organizations to be Agile?

In an ever-changing world, organizations need to be able to adapt to the challenges and problems that surround them. While traditional organizational structures and management styles strive to adapt their processes and outputs quickly, organizations that take an agile approach can keep pace with rapid change.

If an organization is agile, it can quickly realize the new demands of customers and change the products and services of the organization quickly. Therefore it can quickly and easily outperform its competitors in the market. Therefore, the organization’s agility is very important in today’s world full of change and is one of the main conditions for success in today’s competitive markets.

Features of an Agile organization

Here are the most important characteristics of an agile organization that an organization or company must follow to be agile and make the necessary changes in your organization:

1- Being customer-oriented

One of the most important characteristics of an agile organization is that organizations are customer-oriented. Undoubtedly, the customer is the main field of these organizations. Instead of focusing on optimizing operational processes to increase profit margins, agile organizations focus on understanding the needs of their customers and creating custom solutions. Making a profit is less important for agile organizations and is created by creating value for customers.

In fact, instead of fighting competitors, these organizations focus on making the consumer happy. We can say that customer focus is the key to the success of agile organizations. These organizations focus on understanding their customers first. They listen carefully to what their customers are saying, and their output and performance are completely in line with their customers’ needs. A customer-centric organization can gain a deep understanding of the specific needs of its target market.

Suppose you want to have an agile organization. In that case, the first step is to focus on understanding your customers and identifying their needs because you can only create value by meeting their needs.

2- Empowering teams

Another important characteristic of a successful agile organization is that it creates a common vision in the organization. People in these organizations work and work as a cohesive community. This common goal can be seen in virtually every part of an agile organization, from the executive to the employees working within the organization. The hardest part is getting this shared message across to all departments, teams, and business units so that people know where they are and what their goals are.

Forming a centralized network is the next step in creating an agile organization through which you can form strong teams. If this step is done correctly, you will create a sustainable ecosystem and system in the organization. In such an environment, people share best practices and seek more and better opportunities to advance their organizational goals.

While agile organizations maintain a traditional hierarchical structure, other parts of the organization are essentially a system of independent networking teams with a common goal and vision. Empowering agile and flexible teams is a critical starting point for agile transformation. Your people are your distinguishing feature and the most powerful resource for improving agility. To reveal their potential, you must allow them to repeat and innovate.

In agile organizations, teams work with their supervisors to set goals that move the business forward. Team members are given the ability to quickly test processes, products, and services. Even if their experiments are unsuccessful, team members follow up on what they learn about the cause of the failure and use that knowledge to know future repetitions.

Your organization may need structural upgrades to enable agile teams. Creating flexible teams that work together prevents silos and exposes each employee to other roles throughout the company. It helps them better understand their role in the bigger picture and allows them to see the possibilities of internal mobility. To thrive in an agile organization, supervisors must learn to build high-performance teams.

Agile work environments are critical to empowering agility across the company. It is true of physical and digital workspaces. Ideally, agile companies welcome blended work to give employees the most flexibility to choose when, where, and how they work. Agile offices are more like shared workspaces than a traditional designated office. The goal is to have a physical environment where people can come to work together and learn from each other. The digital work environment must also support flexibility. For example, teams should have the authority to set their communication guidelines. Transparency is essential in an agile work environment.

3- Accepting changes and making quick decisions

Another characteristic of an agile organization is that it is receptive to change. We have to accept that no one knows the future, and it is not clear what the business situation will be like next year. An agile organization can make quick decisions and is always ready for change. Nevertheless, you must maintain the principle of customer orientation of these organizations. These organizations try to reduce the risk by upgrading their knowledge and learning more. Hence, they always plan for possible changes and focus on producing products in short cycles. These cycles usually lead to rapid recurrence. Quick product learning becomes common when organizations are allowed to make small and effective changes and customers verify their credentials.

They have advantages when the scope and work in fast cycles are reduced. The point is that efforts are focused and yet small. Second, you can quickly confirm the impact of product changes on user information. Organizations can invest in changes that positively impact customers and avoid changes that have no effect. Focusing on producing long-term products that may not be appealing to the customer is minimized.

4- People-centered organizational culture

An organizational culture that focuses on people by investing in their development creates a strong community of capable employees. Having inspiring leadership and a people-centered organizational culture is key to connecting employees with the company’s vision and purpose.

5- Open society

Adopting a clear and open communication style allows teams and individuals to obtain information to make good decisions easily. It also allows them to move faster than a system with a communication structure defined by specific policies and protocols for each eventuality.

6- Fast learning and decision cycles

To respond quickly to an unpredictable and ever-changing environment, agile organizations have short learning cycles, product development, and decision making. It allows them to make small, consistent changes that increase added value.

7- Integrated technology integration

Instead of simply digitizing existing processes, agile organizations truly strive to integrate new technologies into their processes and operations. A new collaboration, communication, and management tools, for example, not only introduce a new way to collaborate and manage projects but can also save a lot of time.

Six important steps in forming an agile organization

To form an agile organization, we must consider the important steps that we refer to here.

Step 1- Discovering Your Purpose

The first step is to define your goal. Organizations need to keep in mind that change is not easy. Therefore, for any change, you first need to determine your goal. In general, the needs of each organization are its own, and only the organization itself can define its needs. In an organization, you must improve everything. Therefore, organizations should refrain from asking fruitless and frustrating questions and focus on goals and meeting customers’ needs.

Step 2: Form and build agile organizations

It is quite obvious, but it is a critical step. Because the place where it may slip before the agile transformation begins. Managers often form teams that seek change but do not have real power. For a team to be successful or to form an agile organization, it must be a real work team and able to devote the right amount of time to change, for example, a team whose members meet once every two months and there is no coordination. It can not be a good option. If we want to add an agile factor to jobs, we will not achieve anything. Therefore, the team must do its work at the right time and place. To create such an organization, different levels of the organization must be employed.

Powerful and energetic people are good choices. There should also be various business specialties in the team. Team sizes should be small. Not better than more than five to seven people. Before making any change, you must consider financial resources and time.

Step 3: Effective joint size eye

Having a shared vision can drive the organization well. The vision should be inspiring. Teams must have a clear and achievable goal. The goal should be meaningful, and that’s important for organizations. The goal should be in the realm of possible things and not become an unattainable phenomenon for teams. Because when the common goal is something beyond the team’s ability, the team loses hope. You should return the identified goals to the required results set in the first step. If you need more speed, the team will begin the required inspections and provide the necessary grounds for speed improvement.

Step 4: Tell all members about the plans.

Inform all team members about your plans and goals. If the issues you identified in the first step are not important, forming an agile organization will stop. If you want people to agree with the change, you have to explain the need for change. This process must be two-way. You can express your opinion and ask others to express their views and listen to them carefully. A good manager is always ready to accept ideas. So he tries to talk to the team members and writes a new version resulting from an exchange of ideas.

Step 5: Remove the obstacles

One of the most important steps in building an agile organization is removing obstacles and supporting the people. Undoubtedly, any change in the organization can lead to slippage. Because in broad approaches, one or more structural elements act primarily as a barrier. Hence some structures often think they are ok, so they are very resistant to change. Hence, you must remove such obstacles. Gather people who are looking for change alongside people who can do things. Allow members to connect with members and key decision-makers. Also, always include a real customer as a team member because it makes it easier to identify the real needs of customers.

Step 6: Always be learning

If you succeed immediately, it does not mean that you have to stop learning. Learning is an ongoing process. Constantly update your knowledge. Remember that real projects with real results are always the most valuable feedback that will help you make future decisions. Always portray successes, in the same way, talk about failures so that teams know everything and the level of risk increases.

Advantages of an agile organization

Agile organizations create significant competitive advantages over their counterparts. From business to operations and human resources, agility brings many benefits.

Quick response to market changes

As customer needs change, so do agile organizations. Instead of spending months researching and developing the market and wasting time, agile organizations take a changeable approach to adapt. It can lead to the development of new products and move to new markets before they compete.

Improve executive efficiency

Agile organizations are more productive than organizations that have not experienced agility change. Because agile organizations believe in rapid failure, they constantly evolve and refine their processes. It allows them to be as productive and dynamic as possible. And because employees have the power to think strategically and act on their ideas, they are more motivated to succeed and take the business with them.

Employee interaction

Employees in agile organizations get closer to the company’s mission and goal. They understand the company’s strategic goals and feel aligned and oriented towards them. They see their role in the bigger picture, which improves their motivation and participation. Agile employees are more likely to stay and grow in the company for a long time.

Conclusion

An agile organization is a human-centered organization that quickly adapts to changes in the market or environment. An agile organization is customer-oriented and mainly seeks to meet its needs. Today, most businesses operate in a so-called VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) market where needs change frequently. Hence, what used to be the answer may not be today, and vice versa. In addition, emerging startups are rapidly developing innovations, making traditional organizations less likely to thrive. As a result, those organizations are in danger of becoming obsolete and eventually out of competition in the market.

To prevent this from happening, many organizations are moving towards agility and using effective strategies. Hence, they are at the team level and usually seek to improve product development efficiency. However, ensuring the long-term survival of a business requires a scalable approach in which the entire company uses agile methods to work. It is why agile companies are more successful, and today many organizations are looking to become agile.