Accelerating performance through increased agility requires informed decision-making to determine which business technology stance best supports an organization’s strategic position. Organizations often find that simply making the right technology investments is insufficient to develop desired levels of leanness or agility. Technology tools themselves must be supported by flexible organizational constructs and behaviors, as well as appropriately inclusive standards for enterprise architecture. Furthermore, an organization must develop an overall ability to analyze and move investments among technology portfolios to balance those that deliver stability with those that support agility.
However, these seemingly obvious requirements belie the complexity involved in guiding organizational behaviors that will result in leanness or agility. Organizations must communicate the strategy and then create an environment in which strategic experimentation occurs. They must ensure that change and exploration are rewarded both on the potential payoff of each initiative, as well as the actual results. Agility results from nurturing innovative thinking through carefully designed processes, employing organizational designs that support measured risk-taking, and building information architectures that serve as a collective knowledge base for building scenarios.