Properties of agility
Enterprise agility has five key properties:
It is a set of capabilities, as discussed earlier. It is not something which is monolithic and abstract.
The capabilities reinforce each other and hence agility is greater than the sum of its capabilities. On the flip side, a capability is unlikely to work in isolation of the other capabilities, for example, it is difficult to build versatility unless it is supported by flexibility.
Enterprise agility is holistic in nature, that is, it encompasses both tangible elements of the enterprise, for example, people, structure, process, governance and technology, and intangible elements as well, for example, mindset and culture. Each of these elements are discussed in detail in the upcoming chapters.
It does not have an end state, that is, it is a journey and not a destination. This is unlike Agile transformation, which works backwards from a fixed end state.
Its meaning and relevance is unique to each enterprise. Like health, agility...
