Digital natives are threatening the way traditional organizations do business. The dated authoritative structures and imposing mindsets of the executives of traditional companies are in stark contrast to today’s technology-savvy startups and digital-native companies.
Traditional firms are running out of time to revisit their strategies and promptly transform in accordance with the rapidly evolving markets and business environment. They need to focus their attention towards eliminating bureaucratic challenges, such as resource scarcity, fragmented processes, siloed environments, as well as lack of innovation. Conventionally-run business entities can learn a few tricks from agile organizations.
Agile companies develop small teams—comprising a few people who possess the required key skills to accomplish strategic initiatives—as their basic organizational unit. Rather than converging information technology professionals in a centralized department, agile firms group software designers and engineers in individual teams, to work uninhibited on high-yielding initiatives.
This necessitates the senior leaders to create an enabling environment for the small teams to flourish, by offering them adequate authority required to match the pace of the digital economy, equipping them with top talent, offering suitable tools to act promptly, and constantly gauging their performance. The leaders need to let the small teams make everyday decisions independently, allow them to escalate the judgments only in dire circumstances, and take time-consuming administrative tasks off of them.
The approach for the organizations to empower small teams and smoothly transition to Agile way of working consists of 4 key steps:
- Create independent teams in impactful areas
- Place strong performers on the independent teams
- Provide teams with a clear view of their customer
- Allocate resources up front and hold teams accountable
1. Create independent teams in impactful areas
The first step for an organization to embrace Agile method of working is to create independent teams in impactful areas. Autonomy is clearly beneficial for team building, particularly for teams working on functions serving the customer directly or affecting customers’ experience.
It is equally important that the executives choose teams of people possessing different skills and capabilities.
2. Place strong performers on the independent teams
The second step to a smooth transition to Agile ways of working is to place strong performers on independent teams from the start. Senior executives are often reluctant to put their top performers on autonomous teams—considering the task far from being mission critical—since their inclination is to rather have them engaged in strategic endeavors.
Selecting the right, talented people paves the way for the teams to thrive and helps train managers shortlist and create more autonomous teams, and provide teams with a clear view of their customer.
3. Provide teams with a clear view of their customer
The third step in empowering small teams is to provide the teams with a clear view of their customer. Agile and digital-native companies place a consistent emphasis on improving customer experiences which offers the independent team an opportunity to have a clear and consistent perception of business priorities.
4. Allocate resources up front and hold teams accountable
The last step for an organization to embrace the Agile way of working is to allocate resources up front and hold teams accountable. Teams working on client-facing roles almost always acquire the resources, information, consents, and finances required for new projects. Their issue is not scarcity but rather sluggishness.
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