Agile Organizations: Responding to Disruption and Uncertainty
Agile methodologies and the famous Scrum method changed the dynamics of organizations in all industries.
By: Carla Fernandez. INCAE Executive Education Professor.
We were already living in times of great disruption. We saw literally millennial industries like banking and retail transform completely in just a few years. And the COVID-19 crisis has come to completely accelerate these processes. A recent survey by the World Economic Forum indicates that around 85% of companies will accelerate the automation of their processes from COVID-19.
Only adaptable and innovative organizations have the ability to respond to this landscape. However, most of our processes and structures are anchored in a very different era. They are designed for massification when we are in customization times, for planning when great uncertainty surrounds us and for efficiency when what we require is effectiveness.
Inspired by the principles of lean manufacturing, agile methodologies emerged as a response to these same problems experienced by the software industry. The Agile Manifesto promulgated a series of values and principles common to various methodologies, among which Scrum has been the one that has prevailed 20 years later. These values and principles have revolutionized project management, increasing user satisfaction and reducing cycle times.
Several years ago, agile methodologies stopped being only for technological projects, transcending projects in multiple areas. Now they leave project management to extend their values and principles throughout the organization, to adapt organizational designs to change, but above all to bring the mindset of agility to the entire company.
Beyond these trends, the truth is that at INCAE we understand organizations. In addition to understanding agile principles, values, and methods, you can learn from experts in organizational design and innovation, backed by theory and research, when, why, and how to create agile organizations.