Agility is in fashion. All the organizational and managerial literature speaks of nothing but this to describe the company of the future. Leading organizations towards " agile " operating methods is indeed a major objective of transformation processes.

 

Before the term became a portmanteau word, the EVE web magazine, in its habit of investigating the key concepts of leadership and inclusive business , wanted to know where this idea of agility comes from, what its inspirations are, how it is implemented in the field, and what critical eye it can also arouse.

 

 

Leadership action in motion

 

The word agility derives from the Latin " ago " which means nothing other than acting. The verb has three pages for it in the Gaffiot because in the action according to ago, there is a whole series of interlocking notions : " ago " is in the first sense " to make advance ", then " to push in front of oneself, to lead ", it is also " to lead to ", " to make people come out of ", " to obtain results ", " behave " in such a way, " take action ", " express through movement and speech "...

 

Ago is the movement of oneself that leads to the movement of others. In a way, we have finally found a synonym for "leadership ".

 

 

A gymnastic metaphor

 

In the common sense, agility evokes the movements of the gymnast who evolves on the beam or the uneven bars: flexibility and precision, technicality and lightness, speed and tonicity, elasticity and spring, energy and grace, nervousness and skill, robustness and plasticity, momentum and the ability to land on her feet... All this in a rather uncomfortable environment (oh yes ! gymnastic apparatus is not a cozy sofa!). 

 

A whole metaphor for the expectations of individuals at work in the complex context that is that of society in general and of the company in particular in the twenty-first century.

 

 

Agile Manifesto : 4 values and 12 principles

 

Faced with the acceleration of digital transformation at the turn of the 2000s, when computer systems began to produce effects faster than their designers were able to intervene to adapt them, 17 software development specialists decided to meet to define a working method adapted to the constraints of rapidly changing contexts. The Agile Manifesto came out of this symposium.

 

A text that sets out 4 fundamental values:

• Individuals and their interactions more than processes and tools.
• Software that works more than exhaustive documentation.
• Collaboration with customers more than contract negotiation.
• Adapting to change more than following a plan.

 

These values can be broken down into 12 principles, including : priority to user satisfaction, cooperation between stakeholders, employee commitment at the forefront of management's concerns, simplification of interpersonal dialogue, reduction of non-qualities to a strict minimum (i.e. actions that do not justify direct or indirect value creation), the questioning shared in the team on the functioning of the collective...

 

 

The " agile method" : iteration and increment

 

These values and principles give rise to a set of methods based on iteration and increment.

Iteration consists of dividing a project into cycles during which the same actions are repeated. Neo-Taylorism ? Quite the contrary, because the agile approach assumes short iterations (and not over a quarter of a century as with Taylor) and numerous iterations that must cover all the activities of a development. And above all, iteration comes into tension with increment.

 

Incrementing is the process of adding a value to an iteration loop. To put it simply, we could say that the iteration/incrementation method is testing things by repeating them to check that they work well in use, while regularly introducing new elements. If it breaks at the slightest gravel, it's because the software is not robust enough. If, on the other hand, the additional variable has the effect of increasing value creation, then we resume the cycle of iterations by integrating it. A logic of continuous innovation, no more and no less!

 

 

Agility in management

 

Driven by the acceleration problems encountered by the IT sector, managerial science, in turn confronted with the socio-economic changes induced by this unprecedented velocity of context change, has been inspired by the agile method to think about the future of organizations.

 

Agile management is based on three main axes :

• Collective intelligence
• Appropriation of digital transformation
• Continuous improvement

 

These three main lines define the new role of the manager/leader :

• Creating and maintaining the conditions for the expression of collective intelligence
• Promote the impregnation of digital culture in individuals and teams
• Build and deploy inclusive quality improvement systems (i.e. accessible to all individuals directly or indirectly involved).

 

 

Promoting the expression of the power of collective intelligence

 

Collective intelligence is not the sum of the individual intelligences of a given community, it is the functioning intelligence of the group. It essentially addresses the capacity for integration and the quality of relationships. The reference author on the subject, Pierre Lévy, defines it as follows : "intelligence that is distributed everywhere, constantly valued, coordinated in real time, which leads to an effective mobilization of skills ".

 

" Universally distributed intelligence" implies making information available that impacts the work group. Gone are the super-knowing managers who base their power on the retention or biased dissemination of information. Welcome to the leader who circulates knowledge, ideas, points of view by accepting that not everything starts from him as the epicenter. Its role is not only to coordinate the distribution of information, but also and above all to guarantee the fluidity of exchanges. This is what is meant in the " real-time coordinated" phrase of Levy's definition.

 

Collective intelligence must also be " constantly valued ". When yesterday, we rewarded the employee who made individual brilliance, testified to a remarkable performance on his or her part, his or her scope, his or her field of expertise ; In the future , we will have to value above all those who, without necessarily shining personally, contribute to the progress of the group, by being the factors of cohesion, relational fluidity, continuity in the commitment of each person... Good news for the humble and those who, in the shadows, make life easier for the collective. A real change in the rules of the game for those who stand out for themselves through a singular talent and/or an acute art of personal branding.

 

However, it is not a question of putting down the cackle of fringant.es because the " effective mobilization of skills " obviously covers the need not to deprive oneself of any capacity or talent. Simply, it is the direction in which the expression of talent turns that changes : where in the traditional organization it was oriented towards the approving authority, it must go, in the agile company, towards the participating community.

 

 

Promoting the impregnation of digital culture

(c) Angie + 1

 

The second area of implementation of agile management concerns digital culture. Beyond the appropriation of digital tools and uses, it is a question of transmitting the values of culture 3.0 : horizontality of relationships, serendipity and experimentation, open source, sharing, collaboration and solidarity, legitimacy through content, informalism and relaxation, autonomy and initiative,  inspiration, porosity, responsiveness,  right to question...

 

This is a major shake-up for management : basta the hierarchical authority acquired by the status, no more planning/validation/control, the time is also for the competition of loyalties (the loyalty of the employee due to his/her superior is combined with that due to personal values and those of the collective)...

 

The leader now has the role of conductor without a baton, obliged to inspire confidence and trust in each performer to play his or her part in harmony with the collective...

 

 

Build, deploy and ensure the sustainability of inclusive systems of continuous improvement

 

The agile company is one that is able to adapt quickly and appropriately to rapid and sometimes unpredictable changes in context. It must therefore constantly maintain a very high level of quality, to be able to withstand any innovation shocks and to have a sufficiently solid and flexible base at the same time (like weather-resistant plants thanks to powerful rooting coupled with a formidable flexibility of their branches) to allow it to get up to speed diligently.

 

This foundation is based above all on the continuous learning of new and emerging skills.  Learning tout.es by tout.es all the time is most often materialized in e-learning systems that are likely to massively increase access to cutting-edge training thanks to user-friendly content formats (edutainment modules, audiovisual supports, MOOCs, apps, etc.), tailor-made temporalities (you make your own training program, according to your skills development needs and the constraints of your agenda) and community platforms self-support for the sharing of knowledge, experiences and practices.

 

 

The neo-dogma of agility in question ?

 

Radically shaking up traditional organizational systems that have shown their limits, the agile mode is seducing... A little, however, in the manner of a utopia. This is the first criticism addressed to him. So far removed in some ways from what is the reality observed and experienced in current organizations, it can have the effect of a catalogue of pious wishes conveying more fantasies (or even creating cruel frustrations when the gap between the announced intention and the observed reality is too great) than bearing effects.

 

Among these fantasies, according to the professor of strategy and organization Philippe Silberzahn , there is a mythification of the " start-up " model, which is based on an attention exclusively reserved for the great success stories of digital technology and which ignores the mass of failures of agile experiments. In other words, while most innovative companies with exceptional performance share agility, not all companies that attempt agility succeed in their innovation and growth bet. Some even come back quite in disarray...

 

 

It is also, says the expert, that the importance of the time needed for change in general and the transition to agility in particular is underestimated . Let's remember our gymnast: it was not in one day that she acquired such dexterity on the apparatus, but it was the result of a long and assiduous training, sometimes painful, which required specific attention from sports coaching to limit the risk of strain and exhaustion.

 

To go further in the criticism, are we not on the wrong track in wanting to manage the acceleration (of mutations) by the acceleration (of change)?  What if the primary need in a turbulent and uncertain environment was not to guarantee stability and sustainability ? Without promoting conservatism, we can indeed consider the transformation of the company as a work of recomposition of the reassuring framework rather than in modular construction intended to follow (if not suffer) the sometimes somewhat crazy pace of digital time.

 

 

Especially since while digitalization is a welcome source of enthusiasm, it also contains risks that breed the fear of change. A fear that cannot be swept away with an injunction to agility, when we know that resistance to change is never nourished and strengthened more than when it is stigmatized and brutalized. Also, it is undoubtedly through a preliminary phase of consolidation of confidence in the organization that it is necessary to engage the troops in the stimulating adventure of agility.