The speed with which change is happening now is far greater than what it was a few years ago. The world is so fast-paced now that you can ignore the rapidly happening changes only at your business's peril. Sometimes the changes in processes or features take place so quickly that you are left with no time to innovate, and you are only left playing catch up with your competitors. This means you lose out on essential projects or customers. So, what is the way out? The way out is to move faster than these changes simply. Your organization must be much more alert to the world and your competitors. In other words, adopting Agility is the answer to keeping pace with or staying ahead of the rapidly changing world.
A recent study has revealed that most Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) agree on one fact making and executing decisions is critical to an organization's survival and reputation in today's world. So, the key is to achieve Business Agility. The earlier process of long-term planning, like five or seven years of planning, is becoming increasingly extinct. Today, most organizations focus on Agility which is flexible and allows quick need-based changes and corrections. But before achieving Business Agility, planning at a higher level is essential. And this takes us to the Agile strategic planning at the leadership level.
What is Agile strategic planning?
Traditional strategic planning is usually a long-drawn process. Research is done, and findings are documented before any strategic planning begins. It is followed by long meetings and multiple layers of approvals. Only a few top leadership members who have the power to decide are involved in this planning process. This planning is done on a long-term basis and is generally rigid. A mismatch in the strategy and execution has been seen in the traditional strategic planning process. The top leadership of the organization provides this kind of planning, and there is no input from the people at the ground level.
Agile strategic planning replaces this formal process of organizations with a more informal process that involves short meetings between smaller groups of all Stakeholders who can accelerate the strategic decision-making. Here, strategic planning is done short-term, keeping room for sudden changes that may crop up unexpectedly. The Agile strategic planning process is repeated more frequently than the traditional process, usually every month or quarter. This way, the flow is continuous, and it produces a lot of potential initiatives. Since the process is fast here, these initiatives are reviewed quickly, priorities are drawn up, and these initiatives are implemented accordingly.
You must change mindsets, behaviors, and methods when taking up Agile strategic planning. It is suitable for fast-paced industries like technology, finance, manufacturing, etc., because Agile Planning provides speed and flexibility. The shift from traditional strategy planning to Agile strategy planning means shifting from annual to quarterly planning.
How does Agile strategic planning work?
The Agile strategic planning process focuses on value streams and funds them; from there, it executes the projects. This is so because, in traditional strategy planning, the allotment of resources is very complex and takes a lot of time. This means in Agile, strategy enterprise defines the strategy, and value measurement guides the decisions on the quantum of investment. At the same time, the products are being completed, and released. Agile strategy defines and the teams focus on the work that brings value to the company and the customers, and the basis of allocating the resources is what brings the value. This way, the organizations don't have to continuously review the resource allocation, simplifying the process and giving the portfolio level power for making decisions. So, from the very start, companies can focus on strategy execution to sustain the strategic momentum.
To start with Agile strategic planning, first, you need to understand the organization's mission and values clearly. This should be your launching pad for strategic planning. And with this kind of launching pad, you can plan faster. The following essential requirement for Agile planning is to have a group of the least possible size that should comprise sprightly Stakeholders who don't get entangled in multiple rounds of reviews and approvals. This group should have the authority or power to adjust the resources according to the situation or the problem being faced. The size of the organization will determine the size of this group. The following requirement is that every initiative should have an Agile process that can be managed and documented and the flow of information can be controlled. This can be done through Agile methodology by dividing the tasks into small, manageable parts whose results can be measured and then prioritizing which task gets done first.
The process of Agile strategic planning can be divided into the following steps:
- You need to understand what information is available in the context of present strategic planning, the analysis you have carried out, and the prevailing competition scenario. You take this information as the base for Agile strategic planning.
- You must create a vision or find a point around which Agile strategic planning will be built. This would drive the change and ensure stability.
- Create small goals that will act as a roadmap for achieving the ultimate vision.
- To maintain continuity, create a pattern for strategic planning and execution. Add a communication plan to ensure Stakeholders are on the same page regarding goals. Maintain a frequency for executing and releasing the action plans. Develop metrics to check progress toward goals and adjust to situations.
One important aspect of Agile strategic planning is that everyone in the organization should clearly understand their role in developing the strategy. So, the decisions are not imposed but driven by data, which becomes the organization's rule rather than an exception. This also helps ease the fears of the employees who may see the change as a threat. In today's world, the success of an organization heavily depends on how fast and vibrant it can respond to the changes in the business environment. When the organization leaders set far-sighted goals, they can empower everyone to devise ways of solving the problems, thus contributing to achieving the leaders' vision. The Agile strategic planning process aligns the efforts of the people and the available resources to achieve optimum results. This, in turn, adds value to the work being carried out.
Why Agile Strategic Planning?
The most significant advantage of Agile strategic planning is that it gives power to portfolio managers to decide the priority of the projects meaning they can choose which project they would work on first and which one they would take up later. This gives them encouragement and motivation. But they have to ensure that they have proper and regular communication with the executives to ensure that the project remains on track and they all are aligned. Another benefit of Agile strategy planning is that it increases work speed, allowing you to release more work while ensuring judicious use of resources. Further, it encourages innovation because it gives power to people and allows them to solve problems in their way without wasting time waiting for instructions.
Since Agile planning is flexible, it allows for swift changes when the situation demands. The Agile strategic planning goes along the essential principle of the Agile methodology that the teams must collaborate across departments and functions. When the teams understand and work on a shared vision, their collaboration, cooperation, and communication improve.
In conclusion, we can say that in today's disruptive world, where the changes occur so frequently and suddenly, it becomes imperative for organizations to adopt Agile strategic planning to meet the challenges and be competitive. It calls for breaking out of the traditional strategic planning and its unmanageable and inconvenient ways and adopting a new and different way of thinking and resolving the issues. More and more organizations are adopting Agile strategic planning, which is becoming their strength in staying ahead in business.
References
- https://www.servicenow.com/workflow/employee-engagement/how-to-adopt-Agile-strategic-planning/
- https://www.atlassian.com/blog/Agile/Agile-strategic-planning/
- https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/Agile-strategy-short-cycle-strategy-development-and-execution/
