Agility is a Strategy, Agile is a Tactic

I’ve been catching up on some of the conference sessions I have added to my personal Kanban over the year.

One of the sessions from the recent Lean Kanban Central Europe 2015, truly caught my eye. “Turn Your Organisation Into A Laboratory with Strategy Deployment” by the excellent Karl Scotland.

During his talk, he raises many insightful points. One that resonated with me “Agility is a strategy, Agile is a tactic”.

Since the early 2000s (probably starting in the months after the Agile Manifesto was published) I’ve have had many debates about the significant distinction between the two terms: Agility ≠ Agile

Agile focuses on the “What” and the “How”. Think of the team level or teams of teams.

Agility is part of the “Why”. Think of this across the entire business

We can exhibit Agility without Agile!

I often presented similar thinking to clients and colleagues’ during my time with CGI. Although I held a unique role at the time, combining technical leadership responsibilities as Head of Microsoft Practice for Northern Europe, with business duties as Managing Business Consultant, my engagements often required me to improve the operations of both clients and CGI.

As a lead consultant, I was tasked with the holistic endeavor of turning around the Microsoft business. The turning point came when I began viewing the strategic challenge through the lens of agility (a fairly new term in business at the time). This enabled me to facilitate impactful change across all business functions.

This perspective shift allowed me to enhance technical capabilities and service offerings, foster stronger client relationships, streamline internal processes, and drive significant revenue growth. The comprehensive approach led to increased client satisfaction, improved team performance, and a more competitive market position for CGI.

My perspective from 10-years ago has evolved further…for me now, Agility transcends mere strategy.

Often we say that agility is a “way of being” for an organization. It implies a deeper integration of Lean Agile thinking into the very fabric of the organization’s operations, collective mindset, and values.

Would you agree that organizations adept at agility have it deeply ingrained in their culture, leadership style, structure, processes, and strategic outlook?

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