As sustainability becomes an increasingly important topic for businesses, it becomes more crucial to find innovative approaches that can help tackle the challenges we face and drive positive change. More organizations are looking into rehauling how they do business, referencing newer methods and processes like “agile methodology”.
Agile methodology is a work process that is said to enhance efficiency, flexibility, and adaptability is increasingly being leveraged to advance sustainability goals. In the context of organizations, “agility” refers to the ability to adapt, respond, and thrive in a rapidly changing environment, shared Paul Blackler, Impact Innovation and Agility Coach from PaloIT.
An agile business allows teams to respond to changes, new information, and evolving requirements more effectively. By embracing iterative processes and short feedback loops, agility also enables teams to adapt quickly and make necessary adjustments. “To me, this is quite an important part of the definition, as it means the ability to respond to change and be resilient, no matter what the uncertainties are,” revealed Blackler.
There are a few ways to drive positive change using the agility method, especially when it comes to tackling sustainability challenges for businesses. Agile businesses can quickly adjust their strategies, processes, and offerings to align with new sustainability goals and market trends, driving positive change in their environmental and social impact. We explore some of the insights of agile organizations below:
Embracing change
Agility requires a mindset shift that embraces and sees change as an opportunity for growth, rather than a threat. Instead of resisting or avoiding change, agile individuals and organizations proactively seek it out, recognizing that change is inevitable and that it can bring new possibilities and innovation. This openness to change allows for the exploration of new ideas, technologies, and approaches, fostering innovation and progress especially when it comes to sustainability.
Continuous improvement
Agility promotes and embraces a culture of continuous improvement and learning. Organizations that practice agility constantly assess their performance and processes, seeking ways to optimize and enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. Through iterative cycles of learning, refinement and retrospective meetings, they drive positive change by consistently measuring outcomes, elevating their performance and consequently delivering better results.
Short iterations and feedback loops
Short iterations facilitate the gathering of early and continuous feedback from stakeholders, customers, end-users, and team members themselves. By delivering incremental versions of the product or project, teams can gather valuable insights, suggestions, and requirements early on. This iterative feedback loop also allows for ongoing optimization, increased productivity, and better outcomes over time.
Team collaboration
Collaboration and cross-functional teamwork is a key focus of agility, where stakeholders, customers, and partners come together to co-create solutions and gather feedback. Diverse perspectives are embraced by leveraging community, training programs and inspiration from others. The iterative and nature of agility also allows for team members to make decisions collectively, fostering collaboration, creativity, and a sense of shared responsibility. By involving a range of voices and expertise, we foster innovation, share ideas and generate better outcomes that positively impacts everyone, remarks Sylvain Mahe, Chief Sustainability Leadership Officer from PaloIT.
Cross-functional teams
Cross-functional teams bring together individuals from different disciplines, backgrounds, and areas of expertise. This diversity of perspectives enables a richer and more holistic approach to problem-solving. By integrating diverse knowledge, skills, and experiences, cross-functional teams can generate more innovative ideas and find creative solutions to complex problems.
Adaptation
The ability to adapt and respond to changing circumstances and evolving needs is a fundamental aspect of agility. Agile organizations empower teams to be more adaptable and flexible when responding to change. They are able to identify emerging trends, market shifts or changing customer needs and promptly adjust their strategies and offerings. By aligning and adapting products, services, and experiences with customer needs and preferences, you can drive positive change by delivering enhanced value, satisfaction, and loyalty.
Customer-centricity
Blackler remarks that the agility movement was originally built around human centric values. Because of this, agility places a strong emphasis on understanding and meeting customer needs, actively seeking customer feedback, conducting user research, and incorporating it into the product or service. By involving customers in the process, agile teams can gain insights into their sustainability concerns and incorporate sustainable practices into their offerings to ensure that the final product or service meets not only functional and quality requirements, but also sustainability goals.
Flexibility and resilience
We live in a volatile, complex world where it can be challenging for an organization to respond quickly to consumer needs. Using the agility method allows us to approach our work differently, breaking down our goals into actionable items, and focusing on the outcomes that we are looking to achieve. Within agility, there are ‘sprints’, says Blackler, which amounts to working in small increments in order to provide value to markets, customers, or other stakeholders to receive feedback faster and be more responsive. By having flexible processes, adaptable structures, and resilient mindsets, we can pivot, recover, and even thrive in the face of adversity.
