The next level is team-of-team agility, where organizations try to figure out how to get multiple teams to plan and deliver together, using their preferred scaling method, on a cadence. For technology organizations, this is also the time to consider DevOps maturity, while other organizations should focus on technical excellence for their domain. At this point, leadership agility becomes crucial for organizations to invest in. While most organizations tend to focus on getting the teams to do agile, it is important to invest in leadership agility at this stage, especially for managers and leaders above the management layer. Otherwise, they will continue to do what they were doing before, resulting in command and control leadership that does not allow for product owners to prioritize, and influences teams directly to tell them what to work on.
Moving to the third level of organizational agility, businesses focus on product management maturity, shifting from projects to product, building stable teams, and maturing product owners and managers. It is crucial to separate strategy from execution at this stage, to align teams with outcomes, and address shared service problems that often result in bottleneck patterns.
The fourth level of agility is operational agility, where businesses focus on product maturity, lean portfolio management, digital transformation, and changing their organizational design and structure. All aspects of the organization, including HR, finance, procurement, legal, sales, and marketing, come to the table to create a culture of agility.
Finally, at the enterprise business agility level, businesses can anticipate customer needs, become strategic partners, and stay ahead of the market. This requires IT and technology to shift from being a mere supplier or vendor to being an innovative and trusted partner.
Achieving enterprise business agility requires a journey that involves different levels of transformation. At each stage, it is essential to invest in leadership agility, enable teams to help themselves grow, align teams with outcomes, and stay ahead of the market. Are you ready to take your organization to the next level? Book a demo today to get your journey started.