“Best way to be Agile is; go Agile, step-by-step”
— Vikrmn: CA Vikram Verma
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a standstill. Every enterprise, including startups, SMBs, and large corporates, has faced an economic downturn and is struggling for survival. They are going through a challenging phase wherein unpredictability has become the norm. Businesses face new challenges daily, forcing them to adopt new organizational culture, emphasize employee empowerment and build a modern workplace to remain customer-focused.
In such scenarios, enterprises are now becoming more agile than ever to turn this uncertainty into an opportunity and encourage workplace collaboration to find a path for creating a sustainable and scalable business model. Companies with an agile business model can have greater visibility of their process and quickly identify and fix problems that might exist.
Let us understand what agile is.
Agile is a process that helps organizations maximize their efficiency, deliver value, and springboard their growth. Agile can also be understood as an approach that empowers organizations to react easily and quickly to shifts in the market and internal changes. It is an organizational culture helping enterprises cope with ever-changing customer needs and rank ahead in the competition.
Enterprises must note that agile requires a lot of practice and can sometimes be overwhelming for new players. Hence, this blog post will discuss five ways an organization can become more agile.
1. Gain better clarity to build a better workplace
Organizations must have a clear vision of their end goals and prioritize their work accordingly. We know that numerous works must be done to accomplish goals, but not simultaneously. So, prepare a list of every activity that needs to be completed and prioritize them as required. Keep your teams informed about the prioritized list, always focus on the task that needs immediate attention, and catch up on the next activity from the list. You can also use a dashboard or planning walls that provide a platform for team members to track their work progress and help them gain better visibility of their work.
Interestingly, 91% of C-level executives think organizational agility is essential for their business growth.
2. Encourage employee empowerment.
The strength of any organization is its employees. There is no alternative to a knowledgeable and productive workforce. Hence organizations must focus on restructuring their corporate culture by building more empowered teams.
Employee empowerment means organizations must encourage their team members to collaborate on a specific goal and involve them in decision-making. It is an act of motivating employees and enhancing their creativity.
Having truly empowered teams helps organizations improve employees’ productivity, provide better customer service, build a modern workspace, and maximize their ROI. It helps them frame a team comprising highly trained professionals who take the initiative to solve any given problem and play a vital role in reaching the organization’s goals.
3. Provide good customer support to develop agile work culture
Any organization willing to maximize its profit must remain loyal to its customers. Yes, you heard it right! It has been observed that any organization that stays in continuous touch with its customers will get better recognition and higher brand value for its products and services in the market. A positive public image will benefit organizations to win more sales and explore new business opportunities.
Once customers purchase products or services, the internal team must continuously provide technical support and renew their contracts periodically. A satisfied customer will act as the brand ambassador of an organization by recommending the business to others through word of mouth or using their social media channels. This would immensely contribute to an increasing market share of an organization.
Overall, providing better customer support will always benefit the organization as it increases the business’s profitability.
4. Regularly conduct training sessions for your employees
In the present competitive world, technology is continuously advancing, and new marketing strategies keep evolving, thus demanding employers to train their workforce periodically and help them stay aligned with all the latest happenings in the market.
Conducting training sessions proves to be very beneficial for both employees and employers. Employees can increase their knowledge base and skill set by attending regular training sessions to become more productive at their workplace.
For employers, conducting these training sessions helps build a brand name and makes their organization a prime consideration for graduation and mid-career changes. Some of the additional benefits for organizations by training their employees are:
- Prepares employees to take on higher responsibilities.
- Enhances employee productivity.
- Reduces employee turnover.
- Boost employer reputation and profile.
- Create a better workplace environment.
5. Collect feedback
Organizations must cultivate the practice of listening to their employees and customers at regular intervals. They need to create an ecosystem to collect feedback from their customers and employees and analyze it properly to understand how the new initiatives they have brought up are impacting their business.
Collecting feedback is a proactive approach that helps the organization connect more strongly with its employees and customers. It provides them with the necessary elements and acts as a guiding resource using which they can prepare a path forward for business growth.
There are several ways to collect feedback, like encouraging them to fill out feedback forms, talking to them, and many more.
Conclusion: Corporate agility has become the talk of the town these days. This pandemic has forced many organizations to rethink and replace earlier strategies for their business continuity. Whether an organization is rebounding from the COVID crisis or preparing for an uncertain market, adapting agile principles will be a key source for their business continuity.
Hence, in this post, we have discussed five simple approaches an organization can implement to become more agile today. These simple yet very important agile processes can skyrocket an organization’s growth to a new height.
At its core, ‘Becoming more agile’ is about embracing change, following new approaches, and creating a positive working environment and culture. Agile allows organizations to develop more empowered teams, set a clear vision for their growth, listen to what your customers and employees say, and, more importantly, encourage teams to work collaboratively to deliver value and achieve a new peak of success.
Does this blog help understand what agile is and how an organization can become more agile by implementing the abovementioned steps? Then please share it with your network and help them to learn about agile.
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