08
STRATEGIZING
AGILITY PARADIGM
PERCEIVING
IMPLEMENTING
TESTING
PURPOSE &
STRATEGY
LEADERSHIP &
PEOPLE
VALUE-ADDED
OPERATIONS
COORDINATION &
COLLABORATION
STRUCTURE
Seen in these overarching terms, agility is a capability: a
capability that penetrates the entire organism of the organization
and enables it to adapt itself rapidly, effectively and
sustainably in order to achieve performance advantage.
An agile organization can therefore do much more than
respond ad-hoc to environmental dynamics and innovation
as a way to counter fast-paced changes to the competitors’
portfolios.
Based on studies by Worley and his colleagues, 1) an organization’s
agility compared to competitors can be measured by
the number of agility routines it possesses and how deeply
the routines are applied.
The four routines form an agility paradigm that embraces
the entire organization. This paradigm must and will change
the entire culture of the company. The mutual impacts between
the five main design dimensions create an agile organism
out of the company.
Like the human body, the COMPANY ORGANISM can
only function if all its design elements work and interact
properly. Transforming to an agile organization requires
intervention in each of the design dimensions above. For
example, it won’t be enough just to work with managers
on agile structures without also ensuring people at operational
levels have the skills to put the innovations into
1) Worley, Christopher and Pillans, Gillian: Organization Agility, Corporate Research Forum, 2015; Worley, C., Williams, T., and Lawler, E. The Agility Factor. Wiley/Jossey-Bass, 2014; Lawler, E. and
Worley, C. Built to Change, Wiley/Jossey-Bass, 2006.