Why organisational agility starts with mindset, not operating models

If the last few years have taught leaders anything, it’s that stability is no longer a given. Geopolitical shifts, economic pressure and talent market disruption mean organisations are operating in near-constant flux. And that’s before we even get onto the transformation being brought about by AI.

The term VUCA (originally coined by the US Military to describe environments that are Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) feels less like jargon and more like reality. For many leadership teams, the question isn’t “Will disruption come?” but “How quickly can we respond when it does?”

In a working environment where change is continuous and predictability is limited, developing organisational and workforce agility is fundamental to staying relevant, resilient and competitive.

Agility as a mindset

When operating within a complex climate, as so many businesses are today, there are unknown variables and unknown potential outcomes. The most effective approach is to adopt an emergent way of thinking, continually probing, sensing and responding.

Think of jazz. There’s structure, but no rigid script. Each musician listens, interprets and responds in the moment. The quality of the performance depends on attentiveness and the ability to adapt without losing coherence.

If we’re operating within a complex or chaotic environment where the relationship between cause and effect is difficult to unpick, we need to focus on the most pressing issues. It becomes important to create as much stability as we can, while accepting that action often beats inaction. In essence, we must assess the situation and adapt our thinking and decision-making style in the most effective way possible.

But tailoring our mindset in the moment to suit different modes of decision-making requires a serious dose of agile thinking. It takes agility to decide when agility is required.

When we use agility not just as a way of operating, but as a fundamental way of thinking, we unlock performance and transformation that reflect the real-time demands of the world we’re actually living in.

Developing an agile culture

Your organisation’s culture (in other words “the way things are done around here”) acts as the lens through which people interpret situations and determine how to respond. If agility is the goal, then the culture must actively support it.

For a culture of agility to take root, people first need the mindset and capability to think and act in agile ways. That means building insight, strengthening judgement, and creating psychological and structural space for experimentation and adaptation.

You can’t tell someone to practise long-distance running and then keep them in the office – they need somewhere to train. Similarly, you can’t ask people to be agile if the environment punishes speed, discourages flexibility, or shuts down ambitious thinking. Agility is enabled as much by conditions as by capability.

The three pillars of agility

A practical recipe for agility is built on three essential ingredients: speed, flexibility and breakthrough ambition. Together, they shape how organisations respond to complexity and create advantage.

1. Speed

Speed is about anticipating the need for action before urgency forces your hand. For leaders, that means getting ahead of the curve and sensing emerging trends in their industry.

Take Airbnb as an example. The organisation recognised that many travellers wanted access to more authentic, distributed experiences rather than crowded, conventional accommodation. By spotting a gap and responding early, it created a transformational way of operating within an established market.

Speed is less about rushing and more about readiness to move decisively when the moment presents itself.

2. Flexibility

Flexibility is the willingness to challenge convention, unlearn assumptions and rethink long-held truths.

Processes and habits can become deeply embedded over time, often because they once worked well. But flexibility means being able to step back and question whether they still serve the current environment. It requires openness to challenge and the confidence to drop practices or patterns that are holding progress back.

In complex systems, rigidity becomes risk. Flexibility becomes advantage.

3. Breakthrough ambition

The final ingredient that brings the other two to life is breakthrough ambition. Without it, speed and flexibility lack direction.

Breakthrough ambition is about setting a vision that is genuinely transformational. It’s all about refusing to let yesterday’s performance define tomorrow’s potential.

In fast-moving markets, prediction-based thinking quickly becomes outdated. Breakthrough ambition pushes organisations to reimagine what’s possible instead of optimising what already exists.

When speed, flexibility and breakthrough ambition combine, agility becomes embedded in the culture. If you can cultivate a culture that brings together speed, flexibility and breakthrough ambition, you create the conditions for sustainable agility. If you’re looking to build the agility required to meet an increasingly VUCA world, get in touch.