Agility is not flexibility - Why a stable attitude is important

Many leaders and experts do need and want to be agile and translate that into being flexible. As a result, they often achieve exactly the opposite of what they want. Results of unlimited flexibility are uncertainty, lack of orientation, retreat, dependency, and inaction. Agility is not the same as flexibility. It needs an absolutely predictable and clear attitude that is formed by 5 attributes:

• Appreciation - trust, reliance on mutual skills, real delegation, responsibility
• Voluntariness - principle of self-initiative, freedom of obligation, relevance of own contributions, strength focus
• Failure Culture - courage, self-control, decision-making, failing quickly, feedback, no blaming whatsoever
• Customer Orientation - entrepreneurship, financial focus, profitability awareness, value orientation
• Future Orientation - goal and solution orientation, clear success criteria, future direction, purpose

In summary: stability in the attitude, flexibility in behavior. Organizations who establish this culture foster self-driven initiatives and proactive entrepreneurial decisions. Dead projects and no longer successful principles can be buried and will not be procrastinated. Think this through. Getting rid of old ballast has many positive effects. Good luck!

Typical attitude challenges and solutions for agile work-environments are described by Svenja Hofert and Claudia Thonet in their book "Agile Cultural Change - 33 Solutions for Changes in Organizations" (SpringerGabler, 2019, German).