"As the leaders of the Work Design Collaborative, authors Charles Grantham and Jim Ware have helped some of the world's top companies become more productive. In Corporate Agility, they share the results of their ground-breaking five-year research project and the forward-thinking strategies that have grown out of this new knowledge. This is the first book to show companies the practical applications for staying competitive in a global economy."--Jacket.
Integrate Agile methodology into your business with this stunning guide to the latest management techniques Corporate Agility is the must-have guide on adopting Agile methodology for businesses of all shapes and sizes. This visually stunning book delivers six key lessons that you must learn in order to effectively join the Agile world. You'll learn the ins and outs of the traditional approach, helping you answer the questions "Why Agile?" and "Why now?" You'll also discover new, more efficient Agile strategies that will help you lead your enterprise to increased collaboration, more flexibility, and better business results. Based on the latest practice and research, and drawing on years of experience at the author's own leading consultancy, Corporate Agility features a beautiful 4-color design that helps you visualize powerful strategic ideas, so you can understand and implement them right away. Unlike other books on the market, this title helps you reinterpret key Agile management concepts in a way that will work for your specific needs. Gain a clear understanding of traditional Agile methodology, the history of Agile, and the benefits to organizations of all shapes and sizes Discover cutting-edge Agile strategies that push Agile thinking forward and increase performance efficiency Learn the 6 "Agilessons" that underpin all successful Agile transformations Follow real-world case studies from leading businesses that have successfully made the leap into Agile operations Organizational leaders will love this digestible, forward-thinking guide written by one of America's fastest rising strategic execution gurus.
Adopting the latest agile tools and practices won't be enough to respond to rapid market change. Leaders must first lay the groundwork by creating the right environment for these tools to work. Many managers struggle to install the underlying organizational operating system for business agility. High-performing agile organizations depend on the strength of six key enabling factors: leadership, culture, structure, people, governance, and ways of working. This book explains why these factors are important and how they work together to increase organizational agility. Real-world examples, stories, and tools will help leaders get realistic about the scope of changes needed in their organizations and show them how to get started. Karim Harbott does not offer a book of recipes. Instead, he focuses on mindset, principles, and general patterns. This book summarizes of the most important factors in increasing organizational agility and why they work, which leaders will need to consider in a so-called agile transformation. Because every organization is different, each will have its own route to agility and high performance. Managers will need to tackle all the areas that are crucial to creating an environment in which any chosen approach can work.
Managing projects and solving difficult situations within organizations can be devilishly difficult. Complexity and uncertainty can provoke inappropriate, even counterproductive, judgments and actions. In such circumstances, you need special tools and processes to help you sort out your strategy and make better choices. Co-authors Pollyanna Pixton, Niel Nickolaisen, Todd Little and Kent McDonald provide effective mechanisms for managing projects and solving problems. They approach business decision making with careful deliberation, analytical precision and sound reasoning. Their book provides the support systems you need to weigh your options and address your business dilemmas. getAbstract finds that leaders at all levels will benefit from knowing this book's hands-on tools.
As contrary as it sounds, "planning" -- as we traditionally understand the term--can be the worst thing a company can do. Consider that volatile weather events disrupt trusted supply chains, markets, and promised delivery schedules. Ever-shifting geo-political tensions, as well as internal political upheaval within U.S. and global governments, derail long-planned new ventures. Technology failures block opportunities. Competitors suddenly change their product or release date; your team cannot meet the pace of innovations in your market niche, leaving you sidelined. There are myriad ways in the current business environment for a company's well-considered business plans to go awry. Most business schools continue to prepare managers to be effective in stable and predictable environments, conditions that, if they ever existed at all, are long gone. The Agility Shift shows business leaders exactly how to make the radical mindset and strategy shift necessary to create an agile, entrepreneurial organization that can innovate and thrive in complex, ever-changing contexts. As author Pamela Meyer explains, there is much more involved than a reconfiguration of the org chart and job descriptions. It requires relinquishing the illusion of control at the very foundation of most management training and business practice. Despite most leaders' approaches, "Agility is not simply accelerated planning." Unlike many agility books on the market, The Agility Shift provides specific, actionable strategies and tactics for leaders at all levels of the organization to put into practice immediately to improve agility and achieve results.
As the Fourth Industrial Revolution barrels forward and the pace of disruption accelerates, all organizations must operate with agility. But this urgent priority, now widely-accepted by senior leaders, presents a major challenge: In business, government, and warfare, agility is a buzzword. There is no common understanding of what it means, or of what it takes to be consistently agile. In this groundbreaking book, Leo Tilman and Charles Jacoby offer the first comprehensive assessment of the fundamental nature of organizational agility and then describe the essential leadership practices for achieving it. They show that agility is far superior to mere speed or adaptability. Pinpointing its distinctive features, they define agility as the ability to detect and assess changes in the competitive environment in real time and then take decisive action. They demonstrate that agility enables an organization to outmaneuver competitors by seizing opportunities; better defending against threats; and acting as a well-orchestrated collective of teams that are empowered to take disciplined initiative. Combining their personal experience of building and leading agile organizations, Tilman in the realm of business and finance and Jacoby in battlefield command and homeland security, they present a powerful approach to fostering agility up and down an organization, and out to its very edges. They show how to detect opportunities and threats by fighting for risk intelligence; how to pierce through complexity and unleash creativity by nurturing a culture of honesty and trust; how to meld top-down vision and planning with decentralized execution; and how to enhance strategy by recognizing organizations as dynamic portfolios of risk. In a world where leaders and their teams must brave the unknown and step confidently forward – or risk extinction – Agility provides a vital roadmap for seizing the unprecedented possibilities of the new age and dominating change instead of being dominated by it.
Creating Business Agility: How Convergence of Cloud, Social, Mobile, Video, and Big Data Enables Competitive Advantage provides a game plan for integrating technology to build a smarter, more customer-centric business. Using a series of case studies as examples throughout, the book describes the agility that comes from collaborative commerce, and provides key decision makers the implementation roadmap they need to build a successful business ecosystem. The focus is on Business Agility Readiness in terms of the five major changes affecting the information technology landscape, and how data-driven delivery platforms and decision-making processes are being reinvented using digital relationships with a social business model as the consumer world of technology drives innovation and collaboration. Cloud computing, social media, next-gen mobility, streaming video, and big data with predictive analytics are major forces now for a competitive advantage, and Creating Business Agility provides leaders with a roadmap for readiness. Business leaders tasked with innovation and strategy will find that Creating Business Agility provides important insight from an informed perspective.
"This is one of the most important Agile books since The Phoenix Project." —Charles Betz, Principle Analyst, Forrester Research It's no secret that we are living in the Digital Age. Technology companies make up seven of the world's ten largest firms by market capitalization. And the key to their success is the key to all modern organizations. Jonathan Smart, business agility practitioner, thought leader, and coach, reveals the patterns and antipatterns that will help organizations from every industry deliver better value sooner, safer, and happier through high levels of engagement, inclusion, and empowerment. Through his decades of experience in the technology world, Smart provides business leaders with a blueprint for creating a world-class organization of the future. Through Agile and Lean ways of working, business leaders can empower teams to improve production, grow together, and create better services for their customers. These better ways of working have overflowed from the IT department to every corner of successful organizations, taking root in every industry from aerospace to accounting, insurance to shipping. This book is not about software development. It is not a book about the computer industry. This book is about applying agility across the entire organization. It's a book that will put you at the front of change and ahead of the competition. "A true business-wide perspective on Digital Transformation and the need for whole business agility." —Adam Banks, Non Executive Director and Former CTIO of AP Moller Maersk **Note from the Authors: Purchases will result in the planting of trees and empowerment of women, in countries with the lowest scores on the IUCN's gender and environment index. It's not just carbon neutral, purchases in any format will result in, on average, 10x greater carbon offset.
Know how to lead and establish business agility in your organization. Benefit from clear, actionable steps based on change management truths that have been long underutilized and have limited the success of agile expansion into your business. This book provides a pragmatic framework for leading your business toward shifting to an agile mindset. Achieving Business Agility offers strategies and concrete examples to engage business executives and will teach you how to effectively execute these strategies. Whether you are a delivery executive, a change advocate, a consultant, a business leader, or a newcomer to agile, you will learn clear actions from a practical, business-oriented perspective that is vital to effect change and bring agile into your business. The book is structured in three sections. The first provides you with a deep understanding of each of four strategies. The second section tells the story of a company that applied these strategies through the eyes of several key players. The last section helps you get started applying what you learned in your own company. What You’ll Learn Get the attention of your executives by alerting them to a company problem that can impact them personally and create a sense of urgency to address it Collaborate with your executives in a way that gets them to open up and to see how their operating model is a contributing cause to the company problem Demonstrate how your executives can specifically benefit from a new agile business operating model and address the company problem Create a reinforcement structure on a larger scale to establish agile as the new standard operating model in your organization Who This Book Is For Managers, business leaders, and consultants at/for large enterprises or small startups who want their company to better compete in today’s fast-moving markets that present threats and opportunities at every turn. No agile expertise is required.
Leadership Agility is the master competency needed for sustained success in today’s complex, fast-paced business environment. Richly illustrated with stories based on original research and decades of work with clients, this groundbreaking book identifies five levels that leaders move through in developing their agility. Significantly, only 10% have mastered the level of agility needed for consistent effectiveness in our turbulent era of global competition. Written in an engaging, down-to-earth style, this book not only provides a map that guides readers in identifying their current level of agility. It also provides practical advice and concrete examples that show managers and leadership development professionals how they can bring greater agility to the initiatives they take every day.
