What do you think?
Rate this book
The Addison-Wesley Signature Series
Unlocking Agility: An Insider's Guide to Agile Enterprise Transformation (Addison-Wesley Signature Series
Practical Guidance and Inspiration for Launching, Sustaining, or Improving Any Agile Enterprise Transformation Initiative
As long-time competitive advantages disappear, astute executives and change agents know they must achieve true agile transformation. In Unlocking Agility, Jorgen Hesselberg reveals what works, what doesn't, and how to overcome the daunting obstacles.
Distilling 10+ years of experience leading agile transformation in the enterprise, Hesselberg guides you on jumpstarting change, sustaining momentum, and executing superbly on customer commitments as you move forward. He helps you identify appropriate roles for consultants, optimize organizational structures, set realistic expectations, and measure against them. He shares first-hand accounts from pioneering transformation leaders at firms including Intel, Nokia, Salesforce.com, Spotify, and many more.
- Balance building the right thing, the right way, at the right speed
- Design a holistic transformation strategy using five dimensions of agility: Technology, Organizational Design, People, Leadership, and Culture
- Promote agile skills, knowledge, and abilities throughout your workforce
- Incorporate powerful leadership models, including Level 5, Teal, and Beyond Budgeting
- Leverage business agility metrics to affect norms and change organizational culture
- Establish your Agile Working Group, the engine of agile transformation
- Define operating models and strategic roadmaps for unlocking agility, and track your progress
You already know agile transformation is essential. Now, discover how to customize your strategy, execute on it in your environment, and achieve it.
As long-time competitive advantages disappear, astute executives and change agents know they must achieve true agile transformation. In Unlocking Agility, Jorgen Hesselberg reveals what works, what doesn't, and how to overcome the daunting obstacles.
Distilling 10+ years of experience leading agile transformation in the enterprise, Hesselberg guides you on jumpstarting change, sustaining momentum, and executing superbly on customer commitments as you move forward. He helps you identify appropriate roles for consultants, optimize organizational structures, set realistic expectations, and measure against them. He shares first-hand accounts from pioneering transformation leaders at firms including Intel, Nokia, Salesforce.com, Spotify, and many more.
- Balance building the right thing, the right way, at the right speed
- Design a holistic transformation strategy using five dimensions of agility: Technology, Organizational Design, People, Leadership, and Culture
- Promote agile skills, knowledge, and abilities throughout your workforce
- Incorporate powerful leadership models, including Level 5, Teal, and Beyond Budgeting
- Leverage business agility metrics to affect norms and change organizational culture
- Establish your Agile Working Group, the engine of agile transformation
- Define operating models and strategic roadmaps for unlocking agility, and track your progress
You already know agile transformation is essential. Now, discover how to customize your strategy, execute on it in your environment, and achieve it.
368 pages, Paperback
Published November 7, 2018
69 people are currently reading
264 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 11, 2018
One of the best books on enterprise agility I've ever read
GREAT book! well-written and full of practical advice. My mentor, who himself wrote 2 widely-read books on enterprise ability, recommended that I read "Unlocking Agility", and I'm so glad he did! Definitely a worthy addition to the discerning enterprise agile coach's library
GREAT book! well-written and full of practical advice. My mentor, who himself wrote 2 widely-read books on enterprise ability, recommended that I read "Unlocking Agility", and I'm so glad he did! Definitely a worthy addition to the discerning enterprise agile coach's library
January 9, 2020
The best book on Agile Transformation i have read hands down. Jorgen takes you on a birds eye view of a multi year change journey and all the areas you will face in just a couple of hundred pages. The practical way the book is laid out, is amazing and will prepare you for things you may never have thought about.
August 19, 2020
This is definitely one of the very best overviews of business agility at scale that I know of! I love the break down into technology, organizational design, people, leadership and culture. The book provides you with a clear mental model and helps integrate all the standard tools, frameworks and ideas around agile into a combined story line!
July 14, 2019
Very good book! Recommended for everyone who wants to go beyond having "agile teams" and who wants to start out on the journey to make the enterprise more agile.
The book is organised into 3 parts: the why, the what and the how.
After shortly revisiting why companies might want to go agile, it introduces the 5 dimensions to approach enterprise agility in a holistic way: technology, organisational design, people, leadership, culture. For each it summarises important concepts and provides an overview of what needs to be considered. In the last part it brings all together into a strategic roadmap to enterprise agility. I especially like that there are a lot of examples in the last part about how it could look like, mentioning the most common questions that need to be addressed.
What I missed a little is a more deep introduction and comparison of agile scaling frameworks. There are only 3 pages dedicated to this topic. I would have expected more of this.
The book is written in an easy to read language and I like the structure: at the end of each chapter there is a summary, a Q&A section (answering the most common questions that might come up in practice), further ressources and links.
The book seemed to me like a sequence of book summaries, one after the other. It still added value by first bringing them together in a meaningful way and second going beyond in the last part by providing some hands-on advice on how to start.
The book is organised into 3 parts: the why, the what and the how.
After shortly revisiting why companies might want to go agile, it introduces the 5 dimensions to approach enterprise agility in a holistic way: technology, organisational design, people, leadership, culture. For each it summarises important concepts and provides an overview of what needs to be considered. In the last part it brings all together into a strategic roadmap to enterprise agility. I especially like that there are a lot of examples in the last part about how it could look like, mentioning the most common questions that need to be addressed.
What I missed a little is a more deep introduction and comparison of agile scaling frameworks. There are only 3 pages dedicated to this topic. I would have expected more of this.
The book is written in an easy to read language and I like the structure: at the end of each chapter there is a summary, a Q&A section (answering the most common questions that might come up in practice), further ressources and links.
The book seemed to me like a sequence of book summaries, one after the other. It still added value by first bringing them together in a meaningful way and second going beyond in the last part by providing some hands-on advice on how to start.
June 25, 2019
Very operational focus on practices and outcomes.
March 9, 2023
Such a helpful book in figuring out how to deliver a business agility transformation. As well as reading cover to cover I frequently dip into sections for further understanding. It gives a useful unbiased view of different options, clear explanations of many key concepts, and useful references for more information. While I wouldn’t give it to someone to understand agility, it is the most valuable book I’ve seen to help you lead the change.
January 13, 2019
Jorgen Hesselberg's writing is captivating and educational. It is easy to follow whether you are new to the world of Agile or a seasoned professional. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and look forward to the next!
January 27, 2020
The best agility book of the year
This is the most complete, clear, powerfull and best book that I have read about agility this 2019 year and maybe the best. Congratulations to the autor.
This is the most complete, clear, powerfull and best book that I have read about agility this 2019 year and maybe the best. Congratulations to the autor.
December 24, 2019
Excellent
The most thorough coverage of agile transformation I’ve ever seen. This book is a bible for any change agent involved in agile transformation
The most thorough coverage of agile transformation I’ve ever seen. This book is a bible for any change agent involved in agile transformation
August 28, 2021
A well researched & well-written guide to agile transformation, with a balanced mix of theory and practice (emphasising the latter with good examples). Very useful book!
July 28, 2025
Not mind-blowing but not a terrible book either. It is written for senior leadership who are want to run a truly agile organization, not just do "Agile Theatre". The book condenses a number of good ideas for dealing with the increasingly VUCA world like Systems Thinking, Teal Leadership and, Beyond Budgeting.
July 24, 2023
Nice book!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews