The rulebooks of business are being rewritten. So rapid is the pace of new developments, and so diverse the forms of competition, that many large corporations struggle to be agile enough to compete.

Conventional management thinking and practice typically result in large gaps between strategic intent and implementation, loss of trust and a disenfranchised, insecure workforce. When employees are treated like disposable chattels, they are less likely to want to release their discretionary effort to benefit the business – everything becomes a transaction, and the intangible extra, employee goodwill, evaporates.

To compete effectively, speed, innovation and intense customer focus are of essence. To a very large extent, these are the product of the discretionary effort of clever people. Yet, in some places, conventional silos, management practices and mindsets act as brakes on all of these.

For agility the “art” of strategizing is needed. This is the process of involving employees in data-gathering and decisions that affect them and their organizations. This more inclusive approach tends to close the strategic implementation gap since people understand why change is needed and can contribute to finding solutions to business challenges.

This is shared leadership in action and works on the principle of “I own what I help to create“. When they are involved, people tend to be more engaged, innovative and productive. Such collaborative effort highlights the need for a new employment relationship built on mutual trust and the principal of win-win for the business and its employees.

While agile leaders still have the challenge of keeping shareholders happy in the short-term, they must look longer-term, anticipate the major issues that could affect their organization, challenge shareholder primacy, use their influence to win support for building a more resilient and innovative organization that can create and sustain a new set of competitive advantages.

Summing-up: Agility requires people who are capable of multi-faceted thinking and learning agility; who can cope with ambiguity and complexity; who are genuine and can bring people with them on the continuous journey of change.