The use of Strategic Agility (SA) and Organisational Agility (OA) by leaders is crucial for survival and pivoting during the 2020s cost-of-living crisis. And as we are living through an era where change is constant and unpredictability is now the norm, the need to learn to handle these crises well has become essential.

While there are many definitions of agility, the Agile methodology for software development provides a framework for teams to work in an iterative, collaborative way.

However, the ability for teams to be agile is what truly powers the Agile methodology and makes it work. That agility is based in soft skills, which is where applied improvisation comes in. So the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines agility as: “the ability to think and draw conclusions quickly; intellectual acuity, and the ability to move quickly and easily within an organisation, especially in response to changing circumstances“. We will refer to this as an “agile mindset.”

It would be fair to say that a common issue with leadership the culture of the staff to one which is more agile, is going to come up against pushback. It should also be noted that, just because someone says they agree that this culture should change, does that mean that they want sabotage it. Which reinforces the point of clear, authentic and proven examples will be what leads rather than statements.

Many of those who could be more called managers also are more content with issuing statements and letting others sort it out. These managers may know that what they are saying, is going to have little effect, so they are just ticking the box in order to uphold an image in front of their superiors.

Five ways in which staff may resist living a more agile mindset. Agile practices being implemented superficially without a true mindset shift is ineffective. Ongoing training, coaching, and reinforcement of agile principles is needed to drive lasting change.

“Cunha et al. (2020) link improvisation to SA and discuss how through SA, improvisation enables organisations to deal with the paradoxes of strategic consistency versus the value of rapid change related to unexpected problems, opportunities, and fast-moving trends. This work is consistent with that of Ambituuni et al. (2021), who also link improvisation and SA to paradoxes of human resource management (HRM) such as enabling freedom versus control, work desegregation versus segregation, and peripheral vision versus focal vision.“①

An interpretation of this is that SA allows organisations to flexibly adapt to changing circumstances while still maintaining some consistency. It helps them navigate the contradictory demands they face in managing people and strategy.

While research has established the connection between improvisation and SA at the organisational level, it is equally important to understand the role of improvisation in leadership and how leaders can apply it to drive agility within their teams and organisations.

Bob Kuhlan, who runs a successful applied improvisation for business organisation in the USA called “Business Improvisation“. They offer programmes that allow leaders to bring applied improvisation within high-level management scenarios. The goal of these programmes was for these executives to head back to the office and use their newly learned improvisation techniques while analysing a client’s portfolio, putting together a quarterly report, facing a board meeting, connecting with an investor, or in any number of other real-world business challenges.

These executives effect through this formula:

Adaptability + communication = improvisation

The key is to adopt this agile mindset and embed it into the organisation’s strategy development, execution, and governance processes. This allows for rapid sensing of changes, continuous adaptation, and alignment across teams and the board to drive sustainable success. 

More importantly is lifting your staff to think with SA.

There are five ways that this can be done smoothly, efficiently, and more importantly, effectively.

This involves introducing and establishing a new type of culture within the organisation seamlessly. Leaders will need to themselves be at ease and safe within an agile culture. The beauty of doing this is that not only are there improvements across the whole bottom line, but the leader only has to personally deal with the change in connection and communication with their immediate management team.

It is up to the managers themselves and team leaders to help institute this new culture across the whole staff cohort. In theory, this should be a much quicker and easier pathway using the common hierarchical structure of organisations, and using that structure to bring about change that is beneficial to everyone in the organisation.

In conclusion, an agile mindset is the essential component for any effective operational agility and strategic agility direction. By nurturing this culture, businesses can adapt, innovate, and thrive in an increasingly complex and unpredictable world. As the saying goes, “The only thing constant is change,” and the agile mindset equips organisations to embrace change with confidence and resilience.