A new survey of North American human resources and learning/training executives exposes a troubling lack of preparedness and effort to develop agility skills, despite the fact that these professionals and their executive bosses say agility is crucial to long-term success. The research from The TRACOM Group and global research firm Aranca exposes an Agility Gap that is a significant threat to these organizations.
The Time to Start is Now!
Many respondents didn’t know where to start with Agility training. Only four of the 75 respondents (5.3%) could name a vendor-provided agility training program or assessment. Just four others said they had developed their own training materials. This is due to lack of funding within organizations for training purposes. L&D executives recognize the importance of agility skills but too often aren’t doing enough to develop them. Regardless of the funding barriers and lack of internal expertise, they are failing their organizations.
Agility Skills are Important
The development of agility skills represents an opportunity to significantly boost performance. Participants were asked to rank agility skills based on importance to them. The results of this were:
- Being comfortable with the risk of failure
- Ability to influence opportunities for innovation
- Capability to influence others to support new ideas
- Ability to initiate and manage change efforts
- Capacity to respond effectively when faced with change
Agile and innovative organizations start with agile individuals who make up the workforce. Agile individuals capitalize on changes in the environment, they challenge the status quo and they areconstantly looking for ways to improve. They challenge themselves and those around them to be better and do better.
“The bad news is that too few organizations have initiated agility training programs. Learning executives must lead the way.” — DR. CASEY MULQUEEN
TRACOM’s Response to the Agility Gap
For businesses and HR executives who are ready to develop agility skills, the first step is an education regarding the personal and organizational aspects of agility. TRACOM’s Agility Model is built on the latest research in brain science, behavioral psychology and business performance. It’s grounded in research but built for workplace impact.
To learn more about TRACOM’s Agility program, click here.