Agility is a common buzzword in business. With organizations facing increasing pressure to adapt, shift to dynamic structures, scale, and embrace an increasingly diverse workforce, change agility has become a competitive advantage.
But what do we mean, exactly, when we talk about change agility? And what role does it play in business success? This article answers these questions and provides insights into how individuals and organizations can cultivate change agility.
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What is change agility?
Change agility refers to your ability to anticipate and adapt to change. Change is inevitable. Look at the pace of change in technology alone since the turn of the century. In 2000, just half of American adults had internet access at home. Today, more than 90 percent do [1]. Technology itself has grown more accessible. This enabled the boom in social media, digital streaming, and apps that changed the way we work across industries.
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Characteristics of change agility
Change agility can help future-proof individuals or organizations for the future of work. As we face persistent change in everything from how we work and where we work to what tools we use, change agility can support individual well-being and business competitive advantage. The following traits characterize an employee, manager, or administrator who has change agility:
Adapts to ambiguity
Flexible
Can step out of comfort zone
Open-minded
Self-aware
Holds others accountable
An organization with change agility typically has high employee engagement and encourages critical thinking to create a productive and positive work environment. This fosters the ability to deal effectively with challenges and remain motivated. Companies that use change agility to their competitive advantage often have change management policies and procedures in place to help the business and its teams navigate change.
Importance of change agility
The ability to adapt and respond to change benefits individuals, organizations, their customers, and society. The pace of change has picked up, and individuals and their organizations need to react immediately and effectively to changes in circumstances.
Change agility doesn’t require the enjoyment of change. Still, this change readiness creates a competitive advantage, helps minimize risks, and sustains performance.
How to cultivate change agility as an individual
Develop your resilience.
Resilience is essential to change agility. It reflects not only your ability to deal with unanticipated disruptions or sudden shifts but also your facility for bouncing back and focusing on potential opportunities. Resilience takes a holistic view, balancing the short- and long-term challenges and gains to remain committed and focused on achieving the goal.
Build emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence (EI) prepares you to embrace change rather than resist it. You build the skills to reflect on your feelings and question any reluctance you might feel. With greater self-awareness, you can better regulate your emotional response and instead take a practical perspective.
Emotionally intelligent individuals own their role in a situation. With EI, you can understand how your attitude might impact the change initiative and work to reframe your outlook to a more positive point of view.
Practice continuous learning.
A continuous learning mindset helps you reframe the discomfort of change. Since you’re focused on development and growth, you’ll position your mind to adapt more readily to new challenges. Plus, continuous learning can provide you with the skills needed to thrive in the new, changed environment.
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How to cultivate change agility in your organization
Instilling change agility in an organization comes from training individual employees to anticipate and plan for change. The following processes can help your business foster greater change agility.
Normalize change.
Change is constant. By openly discussing it and the improvements change offers, you can make people more comfortable with transitions.
Communicate change objectives clearly.
Providing information about the change makes a big difference. People typically respond more positively to changes that they expect and understand. Be transparent not only about coming change but also the reasons for the change.
Communicate in advance, too. Giving people time to reflect on the change, ask questions, and express their opinions can help with change adoption.
Implement change management processes.
Bringing process consistency to your change initiatives can help employees adapt more quickly. Plus, knowing what steps to expect in navigating the change can lower emotional reactivity.
Empower your people to take risks and continuously innovate.
Intentionally providing opportunities to engage in cross-functional teams encourages employees to expand their skills. This, in turn, can build their capabilities and their investment in company success. With a broader perspective of the organization, they may more confidently accept the stretch required with change initiatives.
Promoting experimentation and risk-taking fosters creativity and rewards individual initiative. Giving people permission to fail can help them cling less tightly to the tried and true ways of doing things. You can encourage psychological safety where people feel free to challenge assumptions, speak up, and push back. This can help earn buy-in for the next change initiative.
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Article sources
Pew Research Center. “Internet/Broadband Fact Sheet." Accessed October 25, 2023.
This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.
