Even though workers often get training relevant to their jobs, many employers favor applicants who show a high degree of learning agility. This skill explains a proactive attitude to questioning accepted wisdom, changing with the times, and picking up new skills from various sources. Gaining this ability will help you develop your career, pursue innovation in your field, and increase your chances of finding employment. There are some effective Ways to Improve Agility.
Although success depends on speed, leaders must also consider the possible trade-offs between quality and speed. To guarantee that their business can accomplish both short-term results and long-term success, they should aim for a balance in their procedures that prioritizes both speed and quality.
Steps For Improving Agility in The Workplace
1. Learn From Mistakes
One of the Ways to Improve Agility is learning from mistakes. Seeing every error as a teaching moment will assist you in gaining the abilities required to become an agile learner. You may teach yourself how to get better results in the future by understanding why you made a mistake and what you might have done differently.
Consider the scenario when you failed to finish a job at work. Although it would be more fruitful to acknowledge that you could have asked for guidance, you may still hold your employer accountable for failing to provide instructions. This experience makes you more adept at asking for assistance as needed to ensure that you finish duties to the standards set by your company.
2. Accept Challenges
It is common for an agile learner to want to push oneself in the workplace. Taking on more leadership duties or taking on difficult initiatives are two ways to test oneself. High-potential workers may be given more duties by their employers; try embracing these challenges while making sure your work remains of high quality.
It may be important in certain situations to look for obstacles on your own. You may offer your time to work on initiatives that are beyond the purview of your regular job duties or pitch fresh ideas to management. These strategies may open up new development prospects and let employers see how eager you are to learn.
3. Be Adaptable And Unique
being adaptable and unique is an answer to How to Improve Agility. What specific aspects of the hybrid workplace concept function well? has exceptional adaptability in allowing workers to choose where and how they work. Moving ahead, workers will not compromise on increased freedom, even if the specifics of this will differ from business to firm.
One company may define flexible employment as allowing workers to decide whether or not to come back to the workplace. For another, it may include allowing staff members to choose the days they spend on-site in addition to a mix of in-person and remote work.
Regardless of the strategy you decide on, it’s critical to include technology that enables asynchronous work from both home and office environments. This comprises user-friendly applications, software, and tools for scheduling.
The flexible work paradigm recognizes that workers who have worked both in-person and remotely have a solid understanding of the kind of environments in which they perform best.
Even if few businesses are likely to provide complete workplace flexibility, they still need to figure out how to operate with some kind of hybrid approach. One way to provide structure and flexibility is by establishing core hours and a central meeting area for on-site collaboration.
While the advantages of hybrid workplace models for individuals are clear, what are the benefits for businesses? At the top of that list is a workforce that is more content and engaged. Workers who experience a sense of worth and respect are more likely to be committed to and devoted to their employer—not to mention more productive.
4. Look For Chances For Ongoing Progress
A learning agile worker may concentrate on gaining both hard and soft skills as well as pertinent industry knowledge, even though they might look for possibilities for continuous development in many different methods. If your business provides training, you should think about making use of it to hone your cognitive skills and pick up new ones.
You might also study books written by professionals in the field, go to conferences, and join professional organizations. You may learn from individuals with varied perspectives and become adept at confirming the accuracy of information by checking a variety of sources.
5. Seek Feedback
Seeking feedback is one of the Ways to Improve Agility. A learner with strong learning agility is often able to assess if they have effectively assimilated and applied new knowledge. You can improve yourself by reflecting on yourself, but you should also get input from others on how well you can learn.
To improve your learning agility, think about consulting your bosses and coworkers for guidance. They may have fresh insights about how to assist you in more effectively adjusting to novel circumstances due to their expertise in the field and objective assessment of your work.
6. Create a Thriving Culture in The Workplace
One of the best indicators of worker happiness is company culture. It may seem wonderful to have the ideal mission statement, vision, and values.
However, they don’t necessarily result in a vibrant workplace culture, particularly when workers’ habits and demeanor change. Particularly for distant workers, this is accurate. Therefore, in the context of the hybrid workplace model, how can we create a strong corporate culture?
First, it’s important to note that compared to in-office employees (52%), more remote (66%) and hybrid (64%) workers feel positively about the culture of their firm. Additionally, the majority of recently hired remote and hybrid workers—roughly 75% of them—have a positive perception of workplace culture.
No matter where they are, workers should always feel involved and connected to a company’s working culture. The calibre of relationships with coworkers and management is often more important than the actual location.
Leading examples are companies that cherish their workers, put an emphasis on openness, and have faith in their independence. In addition to giving employees the resources they need to perform at their highest level, they also prioritize creating learning opportunities.
In real terms, this could mean holding frequent in-person town halls and workshops, collecting feedback and surveys, rearranging spaces to make communal areas for social interaction, organizing one-on-one meetings via Zoom for new hires and seasoned staff, and ensuring that all meetings are accessible from a distance.
7. Welcome New Ideas
Welcoming and embracing new ideas is a solution to How to Improve Agility. If you have trouble accepting new ideas, think about the reasons behind your reluctance to adapt. Stress and feelings of being overwhelmed may sometimes accompany change. Taking things one step at a time might ease your anxiety and streamline the procedure.
To counter your doubts, you may conclude that the innovation that could be possible could exceed the possibility of rejection from others. Seeking the opinions of others and offering several solutions to intricate issues are two other strategies for welcoming novel ideas.
8. Attend Training
Acquiring agility is a teachable talent. Developing this ability as a team may be achieved by participating in a program that teaches participants about the advantages of learning agility and gives them the chance to practice and perfect their abilities.
After having the opportunity to learn as a team, members may also support one another in putting the newfound knowledge to use in the workplace and act as accountability partners to make sure everyone is always improving.
What is Learning Agility?
The capacity to continuously learn from experiences, adjust to novel circumstances, and take on new perspectives is known as learning agility. The phrase refers to a collection of abilities that enable individuals to question preexisting notions and maintain flexibility in a professional setting.
Learning agility is highly valued by businesses as it indicates a candidate’s dedication to creativity and teamwork skills. There are also several effective Ways to Improve Agility. Employees who are studying agile often possess the following particular skills:
Communication skills: Those who are agile often convey their wants and experiences to others in an efficient manner. As leaders, they know how to explain to staff members the necessary actions and specifications for certain job processes.
Adaptability: Workers with high learning agility often exhibit adaptability in both novel and everyday work environments. To carry out their responsibilities, they know how to strike a compromise between adhering to established procedures and welcoming new concepts.
Listening skills: Employees who are learning agility often listen intently just as much as they speak. They may take into account different viewpoints and come up with creative solutions to enduring issues by listening to others.
Eagerness to learn: An individual who is learning agile makes use of their self-awareness to identify areas for growth and seek the right learning opportunities. An agile learner is usually keen to advance in as many areas as they can, even if it means picking up new abilities unrelated to their present position.
Emotional intelligence: People who possess emotional intelligence are able to overcome their reluctance to change and criticism, which makes them more open to learning. Additionally, it may support them in handling the effort that comes with being an agile learner.
FAQs
Q: What are the benefits of agility in the workplace?
A: Agility in the workplace can bring many benefits, such as:
- Quicker invention to market time.
- Greater margins of profit.
- Increased contentment among clients.
- Increased diversity among the team.
- Stronger companies.
- Increased contentment among the workforce.
Q: Can agility in the workplace increase employee engagement?
A: Leaders who are able to make a strong connection between learning, performance, and employee engagement will be in a good position to create flexible, people-focused initiatives that will maximize their workforce’s potential. Employees who are engaged are often more receptive to new ideas and flexible.
Q: Are there books about agility?
A: Many books discuss that topic, such as:
- Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change by Bill Joiner.
- Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say and What You Don’t by L. David Marquet.
- Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen.
- 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change: Micro Shifts, Macro Results by Esther Derby.
- The Scrum Guide by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland.
- Essential Scrum; a Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process by Kenneth Rubin.
- Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition by Lyssa Adkins.
- Agile Retrospectives; Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen.
