Post-Pandemic Agility: The Move to Intentional Strategic Agility
The global pandemic of the COVID-19 virus forced organisations to move to remote working or risk shutting down. We gathered eight industry leaders in Singapore to discuss the impact remote working had on their organisations. True to the saying “In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity” – amongst all the curveballs and obstacles, there were interesting gems of enablers also observed. We aim to capture these insights as well as reflect on what can be brought into the future as an intentional move towards strategic agility.
What are some examples of agility adopted through the pandemic?
The pandemic forced all organisations into an emergency mode, a state most people had never experienced before. Leadership was swamped with competing dire situations and there was no guidebook to indicate what should be done. Teams and individuals were left to their own devices, strategies falling apart, and previously planned tasks becoming irrelevant.
There were three broad themes of agility we observed through a discussion with the gathered leaders.
Theme 1: Aligning an organisation’s goals with the work being delivered
With the sudden shift in priorities, immediate needs became crystal clear. Everyone had laser focus on doing the one or two things that would hopefully get them through this challenging time. It became clear how important purpose and context was to drive change and deliver fast outcomes. Vibhav Varshney, APAC Strategic Partnership Manager – Digital Access Program at UPS shared, “In the last 2 years, with the global border shut down, people were relying on us to make their businesses function. These were record breaking years…alignment of vision is what made us successful. There was an immense sense of pride for everyone working at UPS – that our company had a role to play to deliver vaccines and masks.”
For many, the pandemic was an exercise in prioritisation and an understanding of the greater context in which they work. As Akeel Munshi, ET Delivery WOW Head – Global Transformation Office, of Standard Chartered Bank observed, “The pandemic also got organisations thinking about ‘are we doing the right thing?’, ‘is that really innovation?’ and trying to understand the context in which we operate better.”
Theme 2: Embracing test-and-learn mindsets
When faced with a sudden breakdown of conventional ways of working, teams experienced an interesting shift in mindset “to use whatever works”, despite limited knowledge or experience. Sales teams that had travelled the world and never imagined being able to close a sale online, were learning new methods overnight – embracing Zoom and other tools to keep the business going.
Kaijie Ng, Director (Open Innovation Platform and PIXEL Innovation Hub), at IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority) shared how his team’s approach to working with stakeholders changed and how they experimented with new modes of engagement to facilitate design thinking, including using digital whiteboards to collaborate.
Another acceleration was seen in the adoption of technology. Accomplishing crucial tasks became easier as approvals were minimized and products were released into the market with room for feedback and further evolution. Alex Rebkowski, Managing Director and Senior Partner at ADAPTOVATE observed, “It was great to see the way the Tracetogether app was rolled out and how it has evolved through the pandemic.” He commended how responsive the Singapore Government was to the emergent needs in different phases of the pandemic by embracing the MVP concept and adopting a test-and-learn approach to their software development.
Theme 3: Driving more value by being intentional in modes of engagement
As on-site work came to a halt, so did business travel. Linda Nguyen Schindler, Head of Ecosystem & Partnerships at German Entrepreneurship Asia noted, “Before the pandemic, a challenge for our start-ups was getting a hold of potential clients who travelled a lot. With remote working in place and virtual meetings normalised, such clients suddenly became a lot more accessible.” “Business travel just to ‘show face’ is no longer useful, nor valuable”, agreed Vibhav.
After trying both ends of fully on-site and fully remote ways of working, Garret Yap, Deputy Director at GovTech Singapore observed, “We found hybrid to be the sweet spot; balancing between having some face-to-face interactions with colleagues while retaining the flexibility for other times.” Akeel also noted, “Quick updates and knowledge transfer can be done virtually, but creative and collaborative work is best kept in person”.
When faced with a tremendous challenge, we rise to the occasion, but what’s keeping us from doing this on a regular basis? Paul McNamara, Managing Director and Senior Partner at ADAPTOVATE reflected, “you have to change the context people operate in to help them to think differently about innovating, prioritising, and collaborating.”
That got us thinking about intentionality. Can we be more intentional and strategic in bringing some of these enablers forward, post pandemic? How do we sustain some of the agility and flexibility we have demonstrated in times of crisis?
The move towards agility as a strategy
Organisations that are agile by circumstance are like swimmers in the ocean attempting to ride the waves. They attempt to respond to external pressures but have little control over their direction. Organisations that are agile by choice are like sailors on the ocean. With their chosen vessel, tools, and crew, they can adapt to the elements, define their own course, and have the power to steer the boat to where they want to go.
Strategic agility is when an organisation, with its goals in mind, intentionally shapes its business model, processes, and teams to best deliver value towards its goals. Such organisations make intentional choices in its structure and ways of working that enable them to be future-ready and agile in a range of situations. This is not a one-time effort but a continuous process that requires deliberate intention and actionable strategy.
Seven enablers for Agile at Scale to execute business strategies
Elevating the concept of agility to the strategy level could involve a significant transformation in the culture of an organisation and the way it is operated. At ADAPTOVATE, we believe seven enablers are necessary to embed agility into an organisation and its operating model:
1
Broad Alignment on Purpose
2
Certainty of Team and Funding
3
Autonomy and Collaboration
4
Empowered People with Authority
5
Growth Mindset culture with embedded Test and Learn Behaviours
6
Sustainable Agile and Lean practices
7
Flexible Architecture and Integration
To help organisations get there, ADAPTOVATE adopts a disciplined approach with four steps:
“The ability to disrupt and innovate our own business has helped us survive for over 115 years” – Vibhav
To survive, organisations need to be agile. The key question is: What does agility look like for your organisation? Reach out to us to explore how your organisation can pivot towards strategic agility.
About us
How we work
What we do
Insights
Case studies
©2022 ADAPTOVATE. All rights reserved