To Thrive, Look at the Organisational Agility and Continuous Learning

July 3, 2024 thehrobserver-hrobserver-L&D

The rapid evolution driven by technological advancements, geopolitical shifts, changing market trends, and new government policies is forcing organisations to be both agile and resilient.

By implementing agility and a continuous learning and development (L&D) plan, organisations can overcome challenges, innovate solutions, thrive amid disruptions, and meet the swiftly changing demands of their customers.

For the sake of this piece, we will define organisational agility as an organisation’s ability to effectively and rapidly adapt to various internal and external environmental changes.

An organisation that demonstrates true agility incorporates it into its culture and DNA, making it seem natural and organic. Agile organisations embrace new ways of working, constantly meet the dynamic needs of their customers, fulfil their commitments, and achieve employee satisfaction.

In this new world of work, where change is the only constant, organisational agility is the cornerstone for business continuity, sustainable growth, and continuous success. Static and less flexible organisations are more likely to struggle with uncertainty and may need help to adapt swiftly to unpredictable challenges.

How can business leaders boost organisational agility?

In today’s VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) environment, organisations can dynamically transform from surviving to thriving by having agile practices, people, and projects in an environment that embraces changes and fosters a culture of continuous development and curiosity.

Continuous learning is essential for cultivating a workforce that can thrive and adapt to change, leading to improved service delivery, higher customer satisfaction, and overall organisational success. Therefore, business leaders must equip employees with the skills and knowledge needed to become more agile.

How does continuous learning help organisations be more agile?

The starting point is understanding the need for organisational agility and its importance for business continuity. For businesses to succeed and remain competitive, they must have a resilient and agile workforce, and continuous learning helps improve agility and competency.

Agile organisations promote a culture of continuous learning and development by utilising a proactive approach to change, in which employees are empowered to develop competencies and acquire new skills that help them stay updated with the most recent industry trends to remain competitive in the market.

Continuous learning also enhances employee engagement, leading to meeting customer satisfaction and higher productivity.

A growth mindset is critical in agile organisations that foster continuous learning. It highlights the importance of understanding that continuous growth is not just about training. Agile organisations promote constant learning by seeking feedback, exploring new ideas, embracing challenges, learning from mistakes, and sharing knowledge.

  • Seeking feedback: In agile organisations, employees actively seek feedback. This provides them with an opportunity to reflect and improve their performance, thus preparing them for any unforeseen events.
  • Exploring new ideas: Agile organisations foster innovation and encourage employees to experiment with new ideas. This usually leads to generating new solutions and services or improving current practices that result in customer satisfaction.
  • Learning from mistakes: It is important to make employees feel confident and safe making mistakes and learning from them. Agile organisations that empower employees to embrace challenges consider failure an opportunity to reflect and progress.
  • Sharing knowledge: Agile environments encourage employees and teams to utilise various communication venues and channels, such as meetings and communities of practice, to share knowledge and expertise.

To thrive and remain competitive in today’s ever-changing environment, organisations need to harness the power of agility by embedding continuous learning into their culture and operations.

Author
Dr. Rania AlGhamdi

Director of Talent Learning & Potential, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare (JHAH)

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