The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has disrupted the plans of organizations, which were forced to adapt in record time to the new situation. In this difficult context of uncertainty and change, adopting methodologies such as agility has emerged as a contingency mechanism, a resilience formula and an element of crisis management.
To draw an x-ray of the degree of maturity of agile methodologies in Latin American organizations in recent months, everis and MIT Technology Review in Spanish have carried out the study Agility in Latin America, a 'core' competence of adaptive organizations. With 198 respondents from Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, of which 116 are agile experts and 82 are agile transformation leaders, this second edition of the study confirms the progress of companies in adopting this corporate philosophy. .
"The promise that agility is the best way to adapt to a constantly changing world was put to the test by the crisis and was demonstrated," says the executive director of the Agile Center of Excellence at everis Latam, Víctor León.
The faces and tails of transformation
The agile philosophy offers organizations the necessary flexibility to face the challenges that have arisen since the beginning of the health emergency. For this reason, adapting to the environment is the main benefit of applying agile practices: 39% of organizations rate this factor with an outstanding rating and another 35% with a notable rating. Other advantages perceived by the companies are the improvement of time-to-market, the work environment and the customer experience.
Despite these benefits, there are many barriers that appear during the implementation of the agile mindset in Latin American organizations. More than six out of ten respondents affirm that the leadership style is the biggest challenge and three out of ten assure that there is a lack of involvement of the leaders.
This lack of involvement is especially noticeable in middle managers, who are generally evaluated with business metrics and give less importance to others related to agility. Company culture, silos between departments and resistance to change are also obstacles that slow progress in agility, according to around six out of ten organizations.
Another challenge companies face is redesigning budget allocation, with almost half of respondents still not changing the way they plan for agile initiatives. Despite this fact, adopting agile frameworks such as Lean Portfolio Management for budget allocation is one of the practices that companies should undertake from the start of their agile path: they allow them to optimize their financial management, prioritize their spending decisions and consider related factors. with talent management and the use of technological enablers.
Increasingly widespread
Department areas are no longer the only ones that work with an agile mindset, but this philosophy is beginning to take hold little by little in other departments of organizations. While one in ten companies have already integrated agility into their IT (Information) and/or Software Development areas, more than one in three Human Resources departments, nearly one in every four from Marketing and around one in ten from Finance, Audits, Sales and Supply Chain areas have opted to implement agility.
In addition, 51% of organizations have adopted agile practices in up to a quarter of their areas and one in four say that between 26% and 50% of the organization works with them. All these data show progress in the agile maturity of organizations compared to the previous edition of the study.
According to their conclusions, three out of four companies already have a transformation office dedicated to promoting orderly, profound change and focused on achieving the objectives set. These offices are playing an increasingly important role within organizations: while previously focused exclusively on cultural change, they are now directly involved in business strategy, prioritization, and governance.
On the other hand, the OKRs (abbreviations in English of objectives and key results) and the QBRs (abbreviations in English of quarterly business reviews) stand out as essential tools for scaling agility, given that the conjunction of both allows achieving the alignment objectives pursued by the companies. So much so that almost 60% of the organizations surveyed use the OKR methodology and 37% of them also use QBR together.
Five trends for an agile future
In order for agility to continue advancing in Latin America, it is important that organizations address the aforementioned challenges and also keep in mind the trends that will set the agile course in the coming months :
1. scaled
Applying agile to an entire organization makes it easier for teams to better manage their priorities, work incrementally and iteratively, and foster a continuous improvement mindset. Thanks to these benefits, agility will continue to scale in organizations.
2. Adoption
Three in five companies have more than 75% of their teams working remotely, and of those, more than half plan to continue working remotely. Given that agility helps improve the organization of remote teams to achieve business goals, companies that have not yet joined it are expected to take advantage of the change in work models to adopt it.
3. Strategic alignment
The pandemic has forced companies to simplify processes and operations, so developing the skills of an adaptive organization will be of great help.
4. Cultural change
Preventing leaders from being a brake and boosting their confidence in collaborators, who are more autonomous and have more capacity for self-organization in an agile organization, is a duty for companies. In addition, companies will have to adapt cultural values and agile practices to remote work.
5. Talent management
Attracting professionals with agile knowledge, balancing the hiring of such talent with upskilling and reskilling the current workforce, and providing agile tools specifically tailored to hybrid work are three of the changes that organizations will drive in this area.
In short, Latin American companies that have integrated agile techniques effectively will have an advantage in adapting to a VICA environment (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) and lead the market. As León predicts: "Agility has become one of the main skills that modern organizations must use to progress in this new context." By walking the agile path, companies have an easier time addressing the challenges of the present and facing those to come.
If you want to see the complete everis study, click here.