It ended shortly after the liberation of Paris, when the German forces retreated across the Seine on August 30. Known as Operation Overlord, the Battle of Normandy started on June 6, 1944, with an air and amphibious assault to gain a foothold on the beaches of Normandy, which was followed by the advance of more than 2 million Allied troops across France. Take the case of the D-Day invasion of Normandy - one of the most complex strategic operations ever undertaken. But even in the most complex of situations, with an extraordinary number of players and variables, as well as a myriad of risks, agility can be consistently achieved. Tactical agility allows employees to move with the speed of the challenge: to take smart risks.īy Will Jackson-Moore, Heather Swanston, and Mohamed KandeĪgility may seem an ideal that is simply impossible to achieve. Strategic agility enables entire organizations to move with the speed of relevance: to detect and assess major trends and environmental changes and dynamically adapt their strategic visions, business models, human capital, and campaign plans. We define agility as “the organizational capacity to effectively detect, assess, and respond to environmental changes in ways that are purposeful, decisive, and grounded in the will to win.” Agile organizations possess both strategic and tactical strengths. Business executives pursue agile marketing and supply chain strategies. Freestyle rappers refer to mental agility, as do chess players and psychologists. The term agility is used in a range of contexts.
To thrive in the years ahead, all organizations, both public and private, will need to make a concerted investment in the knowledge, capabilities, processes, and cultures that foster a distinctive and all-too-rare organizational quality: agility.
Evolution has endowed humans with traits that don’t mix well with complexity and uncertainty, as such environments tend to make people risk-averse, either impulsive or reluctant to act, and focused on fending off dangers. But leaders confronting such changes start at a disadvantage. The disruption already happening across all domains is staggering, and it’s picking up speed.
A version of this article appeared in the Summer 2020 issue of strategy+business.Įvery organization today may find itself heading toward an abrupt environmental shift that poses an existential threat, a transformational opportunity, or both.
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