19-09-2023
The coronavirus crisis has a firm hold on the business world. In a very short time, organisations have had to completely overhaul their way of working: living rooms turned into offices, offline shifted to online. Although the impact of this switch has been highly disruptive, as an organisation, you must continue to pay ample attention to the well-being and job satisfaction of your employees, all the while not losing sight of customer value.
The New Reality
This is where agile working comes into play. Agile working is a response to the increased speed at which the world is changing today. Organisations that adopt agile practices are better equipped to effectively navigate significant and impactful changes, ensuring that customer interests remain paramount. Digitalisation is an example of such an external change, and certainly, the current coronavirus crisis is as well. The initial effects of this crisis on our perception of work are already visible: more and more people realise that our traditional way of working is somewhat outdated. Why commute long distances (harmful to the environment) to the office every day when working from home (for a few days a week) offers more free time and flexibility? Why have a watchful manager every day when you can work just as effectively or even more effectively from home? Why attend various meetings when it turns out that only a small fraction of them are relevant to your tasks?
Springboard to Agile Transformation
These insights, coupled with the realisation that the new way of working doesn’t compromise customer value (and may even enhance it), make it definitively time for a new way of working. The transition to agile working is now much smoother, as many organisations have already embraced some agile principles in response to the coronavirus crisis.
