The purpose of this article is to briefly explore agile working, including the role technology plays.
Agile
Agile working refers to the idea of connecting processes, people, technology, time, and place to create a dynamic workforce. Giving workers the freedom and maximum flexibility to work where and when they want, thereby minimising constraints, can improve productivity and performance. Other results of agile working can include the creation of a more responsive, efficient, and effective organisation that has more balanced, motivated, innovative, and productive teams and individuals working within it. There are models to help with agile working, such as core and flex and activity-based working.
Difference Between, Agile, Flexible, and Hybrid
Adaptive working is primarily concerned with work hours. Hybrid working is mainly concerned with where the work is carried out (at home or in the office). In contrast, flexible and hybrid working can be components of agile working. Rather than removing traditional barriers, agile working involves adopting new practices to help employees work effectively and efficiently.
Challenges
Examples of some of the main challenges to successfully introducing agile working include:
- Culture and mindset. Agile working means fully embracing an agile agenda where people are the organisation and are empowered in a relationship of trust and responsibility.
- Resistance to change from key individuals and management not fully accepting the idea.
- Preserving outdated legacy systems.
- Inadequate resource planning and ignoring its introduction’s cultural and change-management aspects.
- Insufficient training and terrible experience with Agile approaches.
Technology’s Contribution To Agile Working
Agile working (a whole strategy and approach) means that buying new technology is not enough. However, there are many ways that technology can be used strategically to help to contribute to successful agile working. These include:
- Digital transformation to give workers fast access to information.
- Cloud-based technology. This facilitates the use of collaborative working platforms, real-time communication, and digital canvases that workgroups can use and can be updated in real-time.
- Using wireless and plug-and-play solutions (in offices) to facilitate collaboration between workers.
- The early adoption and use of ‘disruptive technologies’, e.g., machine learning, artificial intelligence, the IoT and robotics.
- Agile working tools, e.g., Kanban, and scrum/project management tools, e.g., ActiveCollab, Jira, Pivotal Tracker, Trello, GitHub, collaborative working, and comms platforms, e.g., Teams, Slack, and Zoom.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
In other words, agile working is a commitment to adopting a new way of thinking and working that increases speed and flexibility in the workplace. It’s aimed at improving productivity, performance, and efficiency, and it’s about creating value and gaining competitive advantages for companies. Of course, it goes without saying that cloud technologies and agile working tools play a significant role in enabling progressive businesses to adopt a dynamic approach to working.
