Whitepaper: Agility and Resilience

Agility AND Resilience: Both are necessary for change effectiveness

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The “need to be Agile” has become a rallying call for organizations everywhere, and for good reason. The pace of change has quickened dramatically and organizations worldwide have been disrupted by industry-altering change. Employees who initiate change have a 43% more positive impact on their companies than those who just have the capacity to change. Not only are companies being threatened by competitors, but automation and Artificial Intelligence present other disruptions to organizations and employees. 

Agility Might Be Stressful

Even though Agility is necessary as a competitive advantage, it still can be disruptive and stressful for employees. The more agile the company, the more personal stress employees experience. However, the good news is that those companies that had the foresight to develop higher levels of Agility and Resilience among their employees were more competitive and profitable than their peers, even in highly turbulent environments. The researchers concluded that organizations should develop both Agility and Resilience together. Pursuing Agility without investing in Resiliency is risky because it creates “frAgility” – unsupported exposure to surprises and shocks.

Organizations Are Not Keeping Pace

Training employees on skills that lead to Resilience is lagging. Research shows that only 22% of companies have a program in place to enhance Resilience while 63% recognize that they need a program but do not yet have the plan to train this need. Agility and Resilience are both skills that can be learned and developed. To become Agile, individuals and teams need to recognize the common cognitive biases that prevent them from thinking creatively, developing unique and useful ideas, formulating plans, and implementing those plans. Likewise, becoming resilient to the stress of disruption and change requires learning about peoples’ innate tendency to interpret change as a threat. 

TRACOM’s Programs

At TRACOM we believe that improving people’s understanding of themselves and others makes the world a better place. So the sooner your organization implements resiliency and agility, the sooner your organization is on a better path to more success.

See more on TRACOM’s Agility program here.

See more on TRACOM’s Resilience program here.