How it works

Organizations have traditionally relied on top-down coordination, slow feedback loops, and siloed workflows. To adapt to rapidly evolving business environments, organizations instead need agile, team-based structures that are self-organizing and quickly receive and respond to bottom-up feedback.

looks_oneDefine and communicate guiding principles for collaboration and decision-making

Efforts to promote agility are successful only when a supportive culture is in place. This type of culture, in turn, relies on establishing rules regarding how team members will collaborate and how decisions will be made. Before taking steps to implement agile teams, business and HR leaders should articulate the principles that will guide interaction. These principles can be customized based on organizational needs but typically include:

• Customer focus: Work is centered on customer needs rather than products or services and should be done in collaboration with customers.
  
  
• Experimentation: People are incentivized to take risks and implement new solutions.
  
  
• Openness: Knowledge and skills matter more than position or authority. 
  
  
• Knowledge Sharing: Information is widely shared.
  
  
• Teams: Work is done in teams rather than by individual contributors.