Agile Intelligence: Innovation is Speed

With the pace of change increasingly picking up speed, how is your organisation and its people coping and adapting?

Who has been past the roadside signs that say, How fast are you going now?  Like many of you, I can’t quite believe that we’re in February already and it’s got me thinking about speed and agility and their critical importance as a business competency in today’s world.

I recently heard a great presentation from Stuart McLean, CEO of Google Enterprise, who is based here in Australia. Several times Stuart said, “Innovation is speed.”  This certainly supports my view of the world we live in and the challenges that both individuals and organisations face with accelerating change now the norm rather than the exception.

Most of us accept the pace of change is increasing but have not necessarily identified the mechanisms that enable us as individuals and organisations to keep abreast of it. If Emotional Intelligence is, “The ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups,” perhaps the progression of this is Agile Intelligence; “The ability of individuals, teams and organisations to predict, respond and cope with change at a speed that satisfies consumer and market demand.” Or, perhaps you have a better definition? I’d love you to share it in the comments!

Stuart stressed the importance of culture at Google as a key enabler to innovation and speed to market. Music to my ears! I know that culture is either the key enabler of strategic execution or the invisible force that kills it but so many CEOs are still overlooking this critical piece of the puzzle – a fatal mistake in my book. So, what sort of mechanisms should your team or organisation be looking for to ensure Agile Intelligence?  I’d start by asking yourself these questions;

• Do you know what your customers need?
• Do you have the internal capability to adapt and respond quickly to changing market conditions?
• Do you foster a culture of innovation and transparency?
• How motivated, engaged and equipped are your people?
• Do you know what your corporate mindset is? i.e. what are the belief systems/values/thoughts that run through your organisations’ veins?

To stay ‘match-fit’ in this environment requires new adaptive ways of thinking.  To paraphrase Executive Coach, Marshall Goldsmith, “What got you here won’t get you there.” Which begs the question, what’s more important these days; strategy or agility? Can you really afford to have one without the other?

Don Holley
Managing Director

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