We are proud to work with a prestigious list of high-profile customers in various industry verticals. We work with people throughout an organisation: we help leadership teams to better understand the challenges they need to face in a digital world; to develop and align strategy, we show individuals and teams how to better organise their work to fulfil strategic objectives; and we instil a sense of belief with all stakeholders that change is possible and action is needed. 

Business agility transformation is the key to long-term survival in a dramatically changing global economy. Agility in Mind helps clients realize their potential, take ownership and achieve the ultimate goal of business agility transformation through a range of services: Agile Transformation, Agile Coaching and Agile Training. All of these services take our clients through the following key steps:

1. Realise the need for survival

The modern, disrupted world is hostile, and large or long-established organizations can be slow to adapt. The initial barrier to change is often complacency – successful, profitable businesses believe they are immune to threat. We help clients realise that change is required and set a vision for an agile and responsive future.

2. Identify intrinsic value

Any organisation that has survived up to this point has intrinsic value, built over years into existing products and services, and through the team’s experience. We help clients identify this value – and challenge perceived constraints – by changing their thinking: it’s not the way we do things, but the things we know.

3. See the whole

Business agility requires a whole-company response, not just a change to the shop window. A modern customer experience is clearly important, but it’s not good enough to merely encapsulate old practices in new technology. We follow the agile principle of ‘seeing the whole’, so that changes are not made in isolation but in congruence across the organisation.

4. Establish a culture of continuous improvement

Undertaking a business agility transformation means committing to meeting the expectations of future consumers and responding to ongoing changes in the marketplace. We foster a culture that continuously seeks to innovate and improve. Our goal is to equip people to take on future change themselves, rather than depending on us.

5. Recognise the importance of leadership

The leadership team, more than any other part of an organisation, needs to understand the challenge and take decisive action in order to achieve success. Agility in Mind support and challenge senior teams to recognise the need for change, identify how they will change, and present a coherent message to the rest of the organisation.

Agility in Mind focuses organisations on agile transformation outcomes, so that they can respond to continued and rapid change of any kind – digital, political, economic, social, technological, legal or environmental.

We have a flexible package of agile transformation consulting, to support you in achieving your outcomes. To set you off in the right direction, try our Agile Transformation Kick-Start. Our agile transformation coaching model has been adopted over many years of working with organisations of all sizes. On your agile transformation journey you’ll need to consider the following:

Know why you're doing it

It may seem obvious, but many organisations never ask the question “why?”

Any change programme has associated costs, so the business case needs to be clear. For the leadership team it’s important that the characteristics of an agile organisation are agreed, as it is easy to be misaligned. We help to achieve this through workshop activities.

Understand the constraints

We operate in the real world. Organisations have particular constraints to do with geography, capacity, legacy and governance. People also have perceived constraints, for example because things have always been done in a certain way. Some constraints can be challenged head-on and included within the transformation programme, while others are more complex

Prioritise

Unless there is an understanding of “why” and “what is valuable”, there will be little chance of prioritising the approach. The reason for prioritising on the change programme is to ensure that we do the most valuable things first, building confidence and providing return on investment.

Change incrementally

Many organisations take on too much in one go, when it’s better to build momentum based on prioritised change. This might mean beginning with one small team with fewer constraints, getting them working and showcasing the progress and results. Starting small and scaling quickly, based on success, builds confidence that change will achieve the outcomes needed.

Measure progress

It’s possible to identify key metrics that demonstrate the impact of change. These could include specific delivery-oriented metrics, or measures of confidence within teams. By making them visible, people can see that there is a point to the process. It’s important to realise that change can have a short-term detrimental impact on metrics, but also that this can provide valuable insight.

Improve continuously

An agile organisation is one that constantly seeks to inspect the way things are done and adapt to changing conditions. This requires a culture of continuous improvement, where individuals have the confidence to question processes and make changes for the better. With this philosophy, organisations can build a sustainable approach and remove dependencies upon external coaching.

Have impact

Our Agile Transformation Coaching Model is designed to have impact. Find out more.

Having impact at the beginning of an agile transformation means confidence is built so that people will put new ways of working into action.

At Agility in Mind we know we’re successful when you’re successful, so our focus through agile coaching is on helping your teams build the skills, enthusiasm and firm foundations needed to deliver effectively in an agile environment. We pride ourselves on impactful engagements that build trust and deliver results.

We listen

Sustainable change comes from working together to find the better way. We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all – we listen and then work with you to achieve your outcomes. We’re candid and transparent, and we don’t shy away from telling people what they need to know. Understanding and acknowledging the problems you’re trying to solve is key to success

Get the basics right

We don’t land and expand. We’ve achieved our goal when we’re no longer needed, so we start with the end in mind: your teams having got the basics right and being able to build on them. We have great relationships with our clients, who get world-class expertise, excellent customer service and support from the whole Agility in Mind team.

Positivity breeds positivity

We bring a lot of positive energy and always remind teams that collaboration and simple communication creates results. Continuous improvement is at the core of what we do: we show individuals, teams and leaders how they are growing, enabling self-confidence and ownership.

Successful team working

Our clients tell us that we’re great at getting dysfunctional teams to operate as a unit, leaving them in a more collaborative, effective state. We regularly introduce teams to new tools and techniques that they may not have been aware of or confident using. Teams end up with a common understanding of what it means to be successful, and can then lead by example.

Agile coaching – our coaches

We believe that we have the best team of experienced agile coaches in the business. If you want to build your capability and outpace your competitors, we’re ready to help. All of our outstanding agile coaches have:

• A deep understanding of agile and Lean practices, how these can be applied and what is appropriate in the variety of situations they find themselves in.
• A level of emotional intelligence that helps them to build rapport and to understand that people’s resistance to change can be grounded in many areas of experience or beliefs.
• An independence from and impartiality to hierarchical or political constraints within an organisation, which enables them to facilitate conversations at any level of an organisation.
• The desire to equip people so that they, as coaches, do not become a dependency – rather teams and individuals become confident to lead change themselves.

Agile coaching – successful transformation

Agility in Mind’s agile coaches are the vehicle for successful transformation, through which individuals and teams learn what business agility means. Over time, the changes made by individuals will be reflected in a new culture within the organisation, which allows it to adapt more quickly to the inevitable changes that will happen.

Agile Training Courses

If you or your team need to sharpen up your skills, agile training courses from Agility in Mind will help you improve your knowledge, debunk the myths, and leave the training knowing what to do next.

All of our trainers have significant experience in delivering products using agile techniques and will be happy to adapt our agile training courses to address the particular difficulties you are facing. We have our own portfolio of agile courses as well as certified and accredited training. Find out more about our schedule of training courses.

Building confidence in new ways of working and inspiring change