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Together, the findings regarding the gap in perception and the reasons for agility, have important decision-making implications for organizations considering a transformation to agility.
Few people are surprised by the finding that executives overestimate their level of organizational agility. However, when executives believe their organization is agile when it is not – and especially in high uncertainty environments – the organization may not see the urgency to change. As a result, they may fall further behind the competition. The survey results suggest that there are plenty of reasons to pursue agility, but if executives already and inaccurately believe the organization is agile, none of these motivations matter.
It is critical that the top managers in an organization listen carefully to the people who are in touch with different stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, industry associations, analysts, and local communities, to understand whether the organization is as agile as they believe. It is, in fact, an important capability of agile organizations to understand whether the organization is as agile as they believe.