Agility as the Discovery of Slowness

Abstract

How can companies avoid the agility acceleration trap and align their level of agility with environmental complexity to include reflection and slowness? An answer to this question is pertinent to understanding the real value of agility, which is often equated with speed. This article introduces a framework for analyzing agility through three kinds of change—resilient, versatile, and transformational—with respect to the level of environmental turbulence. The value of this framework is demonstrated by company examples where “agility as slowness” in some areas and “agility as speed” in other dimensions provide a basis for competitive advantages.