Enterprise Agility: The Key to Building Anti-Fragile Organizations

The world is a volatile place. Disruptions—technological, economic, climate related, and others—are pressure testing organizations every day. Some businesses thrive through this volatility, some survive, and others fail.

During a recent webinar, Lenka Pincot, Chief of Staff to the CEO for PMI and a member of the Agile Alliance Board of Directors, welcomed thought leaders Giles Lindsay, author of Clearly Agile, and Janka Krings-Klebe, author of The Antifragile Organization, to talk about the critical factor that characterizes the organizations that can navigate perpetuate change successfully. That factor is enterprise agility.

Check out the entire webinar here.

Breaking Down Enterprise Agility, Resilience, and Anti-Fragility

The panel kicked off by defining a few key terms: Enterprise agility, resilience, and anti-fragility.

In brief, enterprise agility is the ability of an organization to sense and respond to change, to be nimble, and to adapt quickly. For a more in-depth understanding, read PMI’s thought leadership report, A New Era for Enterprise Agility.

Enterprise agility is the engine for resilience and anti-fragility. However, as Janka explained, resilience and anti-fragility are not synonymous.

“Anti-fragile systems use disruptions as a source of learning and renewal,” she said. “They are designed to get stronger. Instead of trying to snap back, you adapt, experiment, learn and resolve. Resilience is simply not enough. In complex environments the old state rarely comes back. Customer expectations shift. Markets are rewritten. Bouncing back means returning to something that no longer fits the new reality.”

Giles agreed, and cited Zoom and Shopify as businesses that not only survived, but thrived, through the COVID-19 pandemic. He also emphasized the importance of enterprise agility in driving anti-fragility.

“Embedding enterprise agility helps avoid being stuck in the ‘business as usual’ world,” said Giles. “Anti-fragility is about getting stronger under stress. Learning, adapting, and improving through disruption rather than simply surviving it.”

Lenka supported the importance of building anti-fragile organizations, particularly during times of rapid change. She cited Accenture’s Global Disruption Index, which shows that levels of disruption increased by 200 percent between 2017 and 2022. The previous 6-year period saw the index rise by only 4 percent.

The must haves for an anti-fragile organization

The discussion then turned to the key factors, including enterprise agility, that characterize anti-fragile organizations.

Most organizations work, rightfully, to improve and solidify their core business processes. This allows for repeatable performance, mitigates risk, and drives down costs. These processes are useful and necessary but, as Lenka pointed out, they can often be so rigid that they hinder agility.

“Systems designed for efficiency can be difficult to change quickly,” Lenka said. “When we want to make a change we get stuck.”

She referenced Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Antifragile, who suggests that “debt” can be a weight that slows down organizations. Taleb extended his definition of “debt” to include anything that limits your long-term flexibility in the service of short-term gains.

Janka offered an example.

“I once coached a team that needed one RFID scanner. But, the business process was developed for mass production and ordering one item was impossible,” she said. “The team spent weeks navigating around the system.

“Adaptability becomes the baseline in uncertain times. If you’re always stuck waiting for permission, or data, or budget, you’re wasting potential because the system can’t work at the speed the world demands.”

For Giles, debt removal is essential.

“Debts pile up when you chase short-term wins instead of looking at long-term solutions,” he argued. “You need to build adaptability into the operating model, not just into projects themselves.”

Is perpetual transformation the new normal?

To round out the conversation, Lenka posed an interesting question: Is transformation still a thing, or are we in a state of perpetual transformation?

“There’s a myth of the old school, one-and-done transformation,” said Giles. “It’s no longer a single event. It’s a continuous effort.”

Developing a culture that can withstand that type of change, of course, is necessary.

“You need to build a culture that actually normalizes change,” continued Giles. “Leaders are responsible for setting the pace but also have to make sure they’re empowering teams to act with autonomy and to lead change programs.”

As Janka explained, leaders also need to be mindful that the people running their change programs are, in fact, people. Burnout and slip ups are real concerns.

“The pressure is real,” she said. “Instead of leading a project from A to B and celebrating the finish line, the finish line keeps moving. That can be energizing but also exhausting.”

Janka offered a few tips for professionals living through perpetual transformation. She emphasized the importance of remaining tethered to a sense of purpose, being open to adapting your approach, letting go of processes that no longer work, trusting your team, and communicating openly.

“These capabilities are as important as technical expertise,” she said.

Lenka wrapped up the topic with some meaningful advice.

“Taking care of our own personal resilience is important,” she offered. “If you are in a state of perpetual transformation, take some reflection time and really appreciate all the successes you’ve achieved.”

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Tags: Agile | Agility

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