The 6 Enablers of Business Agility: How to Thrive in an Uncertain World

by Karim Harbott

Adopting the latest agile tools and practices won't be enough to respond to rapid market change. Leaders must first lay the groundwork by creating the right environment for these tools to work. Many managers struggle to install the underlying organizational operating system for business agility. High-performing agile organizations depend on the strength of six key enabling leadership, culture, structure, people, governance, and ways of working. This book explains why these factors are important and how they work together to increase organizational agility. Real-world examples, stories, and tools will help leaders get realistic about the scope of changes needed in their organizations and show them how to get started.Karim Harbott does not offer a book of recipes. Instead, he focuses on mindset, principles, and general patterns. This book summarizes of the most important factors in increasing organizational agility and why they work, which leaders will need to consider in a so-called agile transformation. Because every organization is different, each will have its own route to agility and high performance. Managers will need to tackle all the areas that are crucial to creating an environment in which any chosen approach can work.

Genres: Business

304 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2021

Reviews

[Fran Cormack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book on business agility. And, again, i fear it all goes into an echo chamber. People interested in making organisations better places to be will read this book. Senior executives wont. The struggle is real.

[John Cumming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karim runs a great agile leadership course and this book is essentially the material from that course. I have to admit that the course was influential on me in bringing together my thoughts and approaches to organizational agility into a coherent whole and would strongly recommend it to anyone…. As I would this book.

The book is comprehensive without being prescriptive, thought provoking without being impractical and I believe it is as good a handbook on organizational agility as anything else that is out there. There are as many threads to pull on as there are topics covered. While most of these threads are fairly familiar to me now, to someone exploring the topic for the first time there will be many paths to explore.

And that is just it when it comes to organizational agility, no path is the same, there are many topics, models, frameworks and examples to draw from and decomposing and recombining is always needed to some degree with complex cultural challenges. This book draws some of these together in a coherent whole, without creating yet another framework to cut and paste inappropriately.

Thanks Karim!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has what every senior leader wants—access to the insights of an expert consultant with years of experience working with organizations focused on transformation and improving agility.

Harbott distills his insights into practical and actionable takeaways for leaders of all levels. Organizations are craving this kind of distilled, helpful advice from someone who's seen it all when it comes to organizational transformation.

All areas are covered off in this book including how great teams are structured, the maniacal focus organizations need on teams and teamwork, and what really shifts organizational culture. This is a terrific read and a must for persons with an interest in agility, organizational design, and leadership.

[Aki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books on Business Agility I've read so far. Karim presents a practical holistic picture of what you need to do to succeed, with just the right amount of history and context to get the actionable message through.

The book is very well-researched, well-written, and well-organised, putting the team-level agility (and the related frameworks) into a larger context: the organisational ecosystem and modern leadership.

[Chris Downey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book and some parts I did, but on the whole it felt a bit too theoretical and at times shallow. I would have like to hear more about the reality of transformations for example hearing about how to overcome people with entrenched view points, managers who feel threatened, c suite who favour command and control, that sort of thing.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good outline of factors that create Agile environments where teams can thrive. I appreciated the emphasis put on HR/people policies as a key part of success as that is often overlooked. I also appreciated that there was an agnostic approach to frameworks, and rather on the broader Agile way of working.