CIOReview | | 19 NOVEMBER 2022CXO INSIGHTSSTRATEGIES TO IMPROVE BUSINESS AGILITYIn the current business climate, it often feels as though every CIO is asking the same question:`Now that I have Agile Teams in my organisation, when will I start reaping the benefits of Business Agility?'To a certain extent, such a query is understandable. We've been promised faster times to market but haven't all seen these yet. Told to measure `Business Value', but not how to define it. Primed to expect higher returns on investment, reductions in cost, competitive advantages, diminished risk and increased levels of team happiness and staff retention ­ not all of which have materialised. At the same time, it often feels as though there's too much work to do when everyone's already at capacity. Plus, there are those ever-present concerns around losing valuable talent in a hot market.Having the right ecosystem in placeIt's important to recognise that simply having Agile Teams doesn't by itself make an organization agile. Rather, several components go into making a workplace so.For a start, an organisation needs to have­and to nurture ­a culture that promotes a learning mindset at all levels and that provides time, budget and support for continual innovation and improvement. This ensures a trajectory of improvement and excellence in the long run for the organization, and mastery for its people.In addition, workplaces should be seeking to optimise their entire value streams, arranging these around the flow of business and customer value. This removes silos, and hence reduces waste,hand offs, dependencies and delays.Strategy must also be linked to execution through practices such as Lean Portfolio Management so that organizations are investing valuable time and money into work that is in alignment with achieving long-term vision and goals.Finally, Work In Progress (WIP)limits should be set at the enterprise level, and work prioritized accordingly, as this leads to increased throughput and reduced cycle times.More a journey than a destinationIt can be helpful to see the process of becoming agile as a journey that simultaneously runs from the bottom up, top down, and through the middle.Naturally, leadership from the top is integral to supporting any new initiative­and this goes for Agile-friendly ways of working too. To give one example, our CEO demonstrates leadership agility by holding daily stand-ups meetings with By Kelly Smith, General Manager of Enterprise Portfolio, Delivery and Intelligence Automation and Julie Newnham, Head of Portfolio Capability and Demand, AIA AustraliaJulie Newnham
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