As a business owner, you need to get comfortable with uncertainty. That means understanding and recognizing its presence without becoming paralyzed or fear-possessed.
Easier said than done? Sure thing!
This is why we should focus and improve business agility.
That’s why it’s important to be as agile and adaptive as possible, which can only happen with new insights from those who have experienced this kind of environment before.
Especially after last year. If 2020 wasn’t the year of external environments testing the limits of business, then I don’t know what is. Yet, we’ve all gotten to this point, having gained new insights and strengths along the way.
Nevertheless, the question arises, “How do we move forward more effectively?” The first step is to become a learning organization. That means reflecting and adapting after each success (or failure).
Iterating will improve business agility because you are learning based on current conditions rather than historical data alone. This enables organizations to weather the storms of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA).
Organizations must increase their business agility in order to outperform their competition. Keep reading to learn how you — and your business — can survive and thrive in a VUCA world. You’ll also see why iterative planning and feedback remain so vital.
Business Agility Solutions Help You Navigate VUCA
Entrepreneurs are masters of dealing with VUCA. We do it all the time, but the pandemic pushed us beyond our normal limits. This year has also highlighted areas where we need to grow and improve our business processes.
The concept of VUCA, around since the 1980s, raises some interesting questions. Chief among these are two:
- How well can you predict the results of your actions?
- How much do you know about the situation?
The two capabilities highlighted in these questions are incredibly difficult to do. Since we ultimately can’t predict our actions’ outcomes, we live in a world of uncertainty and ambiguity. What’s more, without that knowledge, it’s easy to get bogged down in complexity and ambiguity.
I don’t want to delve too deeply into VUCA today. Although here’s a podcast where I dig into the concept and its implications for your business life. But I bring it up to demonstrate that we’ve always operated against a backdrop of VUCA. It just feels more acute these days.
Fortunately, there’s a path forward when it comes to fostering stability for your company, despite uncertain times. Through investing, scaling, and focusing on core business operations, you can create a more agile organization.
Improve Business Agility to Enhance Resiliency
How do we claim a sense of vision, security, and stability despite the constant presence of VUCA? By transforming our companies so that they achieve organizational agility.
We need the ability to rapidly turn assets and resources into value-creating and value-protecting opportunities. What do I mean by assets and resources? They include your company’s:
- Strategy
- Structure
- Processes
- People
- Technology
Whether you’re dealing with rapid changes in demand, technology, or competition, implementing agile processes matters. These implementations may come in the form of company-wide moves or smaller performance units.
No matter the approach you take, the rewards should be rapid and valuable. After all, organizational agility leads to better performance and more tremendous success longterm.
We must build our businesses on both stable and dynamic practices. These practices should allow for flexibility and scalability.
Where to start? By engaging in automation and digital transformation.
This approach involves engaging tech tools and Saas (e.g., agile software) to streamline processes, reduce errors, and enhance productivity.
Want to Increase Your Ability to Deliver?
Interested in learning more about how to increase your business’ agility? Women Conquer Business specializes in helping businesses analyze and streamline their processes and workflows. Contact us today.
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