If constant disruption is business’s most pressing challenge, agility is the solution

By Linda Buckley and Gugu Mkhize

Disruption is an inevitability in life and in business – and navigating this constant state of flux requires business leaders who are equipped not only to weather change but to embrace it, developing new and effective behaviours and processes without missing a beat.

The term ‘agility’ has been in play for more than two decades. Initially a buzzword used by tech companies facing exponential advancements, the need for agility quickly spread to business processes and functions in other environments. Today it’s a significant determinant of business success in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world.

Prior to the pandemic businesses were already facing enormous shifts. Technological forces required organisations to make decisions and manage change more swiftly than ever before. And then came COVID-19 and an entirely new set of challenges – once again the parameters changed, businesses needed to pivot, and they had to do it quickly.

The worst of the pandemic may be over, but the pace of change shows no signs of slowing down – the advance of AI alone has the potential to reshape entire industries and societies. Accuracy, decisiveness, faster and more data-driven decision making, quicker turnaround times, increased productivity and a higher level of engagement with stakeholders are all becoming more critical, and the onus is on executives to ensure that their organisations are able to deliver this – and more. Little wonder then that adaptability and agility are emerging as the keys to the kingdom of business success.

Defining and developing agility

According to Benjamin Buckingham, CEO of Lumenii Talent Management Solutions, agility, or learning agility from a personal behavioural perspective is the ability to rapidly develop new effective behaviour based on new experience and is increasingly being recognised as an important factor in today’s world of work.

“Agility is a critical set of competencies and characteristics that empower us to let go of the old ways of doing things when faced with new experiences, and to learn directly from those experiences,” he says.

Essentially, with the many complexities we operate in as human beings, leaders find themselves in a space where they need to unlearn, relearn and learn faster than ever before. In a 2019 meta-study published in the Journal of Psychology, learning agility is demonstrated to be one of the strongest determinants of leader success, making it a key consideration among recruiters.

The good news is that it can be learnt and developed. “The best way to develop agility is to focus on building self-awareness, which is the foundation of agility. Self-aware people are more open to reflecting on their successes and failures in order to learn. This directly feeds back into all the domains of agility,” says Buckingham.

Large studies show that learning agility changes over time. There is an innate predisposition component to it, stemming from personality, which is relatively stable. However, there is also a drive or motivation-based component, which can be developed. Unlike cognitive ability, learning agility provides much more scope for development. It is worth noting however that because it has a personality-based element, some people do need to work harder than others to be agile, and some are more likely to be agile than others.

Investing in learning experiences

New LinkedIn data shows that 89% of organisations recognise that learning and development is the fuel that can help them to build the agility skills needed to navigate the future of work.

This is partly because adults learn from each other socially, they draw on their life experience to learn, which means the learning process is often anecdotal. More materially, they also learn when they are immersed in situations that are different to their norm. Thinking shifts when adult learners are exposed to difference – different ways of thinking and doing, different cultures, different perspectives on business and on life.

In curating learning experiences that can help adults dial up their agility, exposing them to different contexts – for example through international study immersions – can be powerful. Interventions of this nature tend to cause an initial discomfort and uncertainty among delegates, emotions that demonstrate self-awareness – a cornerstone of learning agility – and with which all leaders must be familiar if they are to develop an awareness of how they respond to and in foreign or ‘different’ contexts and manage themselves more effectively.

But more than that, especially in the South African context with all its complexity, the challenge to delegates is to return home thinking and acting differently because of the opportunity they see, applying empathy and integrating that with the depth of understanding they have of their industry. In this way the hope is that a mindset of possibility and innovation will be sparked.

Adapting and thriving

Disruption is our new normal – we need to come to terms with that, anticipate it and embrace it.

As leaders in business, we can learn to draw on the full spectrum of our experiences and learnings – both formal and informal – when curveballs are thrown our way. We can challenge ourselves to understand our emotions and navigate through them to let go of old ways of thinking and open ourselves up to important shifts that need to take place for enhanced leadership and future focus.

Charles Darwin said that it’s not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent. It’s the one that is most adaptable to change. And while business leaders can’t be expected to control each and every situation in which they find themselves, those who are agile and adaptable, who learn from their experiences, who think and act differently because of the opportunities they have been given, have a better chance than most of landing on their feet.

Gugu Mkhize is Chief Executive Officer at the INSETA and champion of the International Executive Development Programme (IEDP) developed by Henley Business School Africa. Linda Buckley is the Director of Executive Education and Head of Learning Experience at Henley Africa.