In the Agility Economy - Trust is the Bankable Currency
Jack be nimble. Jack be quick. Jack jumps over a candlestick.
- 18th century nursery rhyme
Lucky Jack. As a pirate in the 16th century, his quick thinking and ability to move fast ensured he succeeded at consistently outsmarting his pursuers. But what if that candlestick he habitually hurdled was in constant motion, changed shape, heights and dimensions every few minutes? And what if there were hundreds of those darn candles every day and they seemingly multiplied day on day? For sure, nimbleness and quickness will help Jack, but these capabilities alone are likely not enough to prevent getting burned in his new reality that is increasingly fast-paced, complex, uncertain and changeable (read more about VUCA here). Business leaders today are navigating their own version of this new, fast changing environment - The Agility Economy.
The late 1970s saw the rise of the Information Economy, which focused on the newly harnessed access to information ushered in with computing. The currency in that economy was data and the sentiment was that whomever has the most information wins. That barrage of information, and the paralysis that it can create, ushered in the Knowledge Economy in the 1990’s, centred on making sense of all that data. The currency in the Knowledge Economy was process and people, and the companies that focused people on filtering, analysing and utilising information to forge intelligent business decisions thrived. Bridging from the paralysis of too much information to the scaling of teams to generate insight had its own challenges and pressures. With talent in short supply, unfavourable economic conditions, geopolitical uncertainty, supply chain disruption and massive technological advancements (e.g., artificial intelligence), our traditional business models were disrupted, resulting in a pace and magnitude of change that has had businesses jumping. This brings us to The Agility Economy, where the capabilities required to win are the ability to change fast, question assumptions, challenge authority, experiment, collaborate, share knowledge, fail and pivot in ways that generate energy, rather than drain the battery, in order to sustain momentum. Because of these requirements, the currency in this Agility Economy is trust. Leaders who can invest that currency wisely will be able to create teams and systems that can deliver a return on it.
There is ample evidence that our business landscape is firmly rooted in this new Agility Economy terrain. Business agility is characterized by flexibility, adaptability and responsiveness to changing circumstances. It is evidenced by the ability of companies or teams to quickly adjust to new market conditions, technological advancements and consumer preferences. Deloitte recently reported that 94% of executives and 88% of employee’s consider agility and collaboration of teams as critical to their organisations success. KPMG found that 73% of organisations believe that agility and adaptability are key to their future, and Accenture reported that in a organisations where employees are encouraged to take risks, experiment with new ideas, and collaborate across departments, customer satisfaction scores improve by 25% and these adaptable organisations are two times more likely to experience faster revenue growth than their counterparts.
And the results extend beyond revenue growth. Research by McKinsey & Company found that agile companies are more resilient in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or whatever crisis may lurk around the next corner. This may come from the experimentation, failure & learning ethos that is part of the DNA of truly agile companies. Having a “lived experience” of getting through a failure and being able to share the experience, consider what went right, how it could be better the next time, casts the mind to a future state; a next time. So rather than a botched experiment being the end of something, it is a new beginning to a new way of approaching the problem – it is bouncing back in thought and in practice which builds muscle around resilience.
The case for agility is clear, but where to start? To succeed in the Agility Economy, leaders must focus on its single currency - TRUST. Although trust has been part of the leadership lexicon for many years, today’s uncertainty requires a much deeper and richer version of trust than has been sufficient in previous business landscapes. It is much more than “I trust you to do what you say” or “I trust you to deliver your KPI’s” and more along the lines of:
“I trust that I can ask you for help when I am overwhelmed – and it will not be seen as a weakness”
“I trust we can speak up and challenge each other without repercussion or defensiveness”
“I trust that we can speak with directness and candour to each other”
“ I trust that we give each other the benefit of the doubt”
Exploring this deeper level of trust is the primary focus of Amy Edmondson in her work on Psychological Safety (a good summary article with references is here) and it is this manifestation of trust that is the secret sauce, the amassed currency, in companies that are winning in the Agility Economy.
Deepening and widening trust in an organisation requires a new focus for leaders on three channels: culture, mindset, and behaviour. As Peter Drucker famously stated “culture eats strategy for breakfast” and this is certainly true in building trust. No one can strategise or action plan their way to trust – it has to be part of what is experienced and felt on a daily basis. For leaders, it starts with self-awareness; Do I admit when I make a mistake? Do I ask for help? Am I comfortable admitting that I do not know something? How do I invite and respond to ideas? Understanding your mindset creates the starting point as it is your mindset that determines your behaviour – and these behaviours profoundly shape the culture playbook of your organisation. Empathy, curiosity, candour, recognition and vulnerability, which are core to psychological safety and trust, will not exist in the company or team culture if they are not modelled by the leader. A low bank balance of trust yields low bravery, less experimentation, less listening, slower learning, slower change – getting burned by the candle wick.
So perhaps the advice to our candle-jumping Jack, and to our leaders, in today’s Agility Economy is to actually slow down, instead of “be quick,” and consider what else besides “nimble” is required to navigate your landscape. How are you banking trust and how are you spending it to ensure your organisation can succeed?
Want to know more about Leading and creating a culture that can flourish in the Agility Economy? Get in touch – www.prismlcc.com
