One of the biggest challenge enterprises are facing today is how to deal with disruptions arising from fast-paced change. This change is largely driven by technological innovations, to the extent that it's forcing enterprises in every sector to put technology at the core of their respective businesses. The change is so disruptive and fast that no enterprise—regardless of its age or size—can take its survival for granted.

My hypothesis is that enterprises are struggling to deal with change as they are modeled as mechanistic systems, that is, to optimize predictability and stability. An enterprise that is modeled for this will inevitably struggle to deal with fast-paced change. I believe that enterprises must be infused with "life" in order to not just deal but also leverage the changing environment for their benefit.

I am a passionate believer in the need for agility (the use of noncapital "a"; in agility is deliberate as it's a capability and not a noun) at the enterprise level. Being an evangelist for enterprise agility, I believe that it's the only agility that will enable enterprises not only to deal with a fast changing environment, but more importantly to leverage change for competitive advantage and customer delight. The reason I say this with full conviction is that, in my opinion, this is the common attribute of enterprises that are successfully dealing with and/or leveraging change, be it large corporations such as Google and Amazon or newer start-ups such as Uber and Tesla, which are causing widespread disruptions. My conviction is validated not only by the virtue of me being a part of an organization— ThoughtWorks—which has achieved a mature and sustainable level of agility across the globe

My sentiment about agility is aligned with what Jim Highsmith, one of the signatories of the Agile Manifesto, has said: "Agility is the ability to both create and respond to change in order to profit in a turbulent business environment." (http://jimhighsmith.com/what-is-agility/)

It is an indisputable fact that the Agile Manifesto and its twelve Principles were abstracted from the methodologies such as Scrum, XP, and DSDM, which were being used to overcome software-delivery-related problems. However, I am very sure that the Agile Manifesto signatories intended the outcome to be agility, and not just following Agile as a methodology. This difference is extremely significant and goes beyond nuances of grammar. It's about "being" Agile: having agility versus "doing" Agile.

While I will deal with the issue of Agile versus agility at length in the core of the book, my hypothesis is that most Agile Transformations initiated—by adopting Agile at enterprise level—have met with limited success because the focus has been on "doing" rather than on "being" Agile. Compared with Agile, agility is a very different ballgame. This is because it's intrinsic in nature and so applies to the whole and not to just one or more parts of the whole. To give an analogy, "doing" Agile is akin to mechanically lifting weights to strengthen the arms, and "being" Agile is about aligning the physical body, mind, and emotions to improve the holistic health of a person. Sure, it may need to include lifting weights to strengthen the arms, but it may also include overarching things such as giving up smoking, practicing meditation, and improving work-life balance.

My experience and reading suggests that leaders who have taken their enterprises down the Agile Transformation path have often found that achieving enterprise agility is hard, scary, and painful. Moreover, the illusion that agility can be achieved merely based on scaling Agile practices and processes across teams is not helping the cause at all. Unless the enterprise achieves real agility, the benefits gained from "doing" Agile will at best be very limited and will most likely regress the concerned parts of the enterprise to their original dysfunctional state.

It's therefore not surprising that leaders of such enterprises are unable to see the full potential of agility, and at times, have actually lost faith in it. On the other hand, leaders who have had the courage, conviction, and persistence to transform the enterprise and themselves as well, have experienced incredible outcomes.

My goal through this book is to highlight that the approach to enterprise agility must be based on treating the enterprise like a living system, say a human body, rather than treating it like a machine, such as a car. When a machine slows down or breaks, the relevant part of the machine can be fi xed or even replaced. However, if the overall health of a human being is not good, it can rarely be cured by just fi xing a specific part or parts of the body.

This book is about improving the enterprise's health and is not just about fixing something which is broken and localized, say a fractured leg. The key message that I wish to convey is that enterprise agility is not about making the parts Agile and then adding it up—working on each part separately. The human body analogy will be to improve agility in hands, legs, head, eyes, and so on, to hope that the overall health will improve. It may also involve diet, exercise, and stress management, which result in the holistic wellbeing of a person.

Optimal functioning of human organs does not imply overall good health, but at the same time good health needs all organs to function well. Similarly, to achieve optimal agility at the enterprise level, the components of the enterprise—people, processes, structure, governance, technology, and customers (yes, I consider the customer to be an integral component of the enterprise!)—must be enabled and leveraged for greater agility. Hence, in the book I have approached enterprise agility from both holistic and component level perspectives.

Moreover, just like the meaning of good health is specific to an individual, what "good" agility is will be specific to the enterprise. Hence, enterprises must create an action plan to enhance and sustain agility based on their respective context. As in case of health, there are patterns that are known to inhibit and enhance agility. I have shared some patterns in the book, which enterprises can use as pointers for creating the action plan.

I am also passionate about sharing my knowledge, and this, along with my conviction about and belief in the power of agility are the key drivers for me to write this book. Being in ThoughtWorks, which has groomed and nurtured many well-known thought leaders, I harbored self-doubts about being an author and thereby potentially being compared with these great thought leaders.

However, my ex-colleague and now a good friend Matthew Stratford put things in perspective. He said, "Not every guitarist can be Jimmy Hendrix, but they can still make music which at least some people will like." I have drawn inspiration from this statement throughout this tough but highly fulfilling journey.

In an era where information on literally any topic can be "Googled," I initially wondered whether it was worth writing this book. However, the realization that my perspectives on agility and the narrative around them are unique gave me the courage and strength to write this book. With humility, I am hopeful that readers of thebook will find them of some value.

The book is obviously limited to my knowledge and experience, and I wish to explicitly call out the following disclaimers in this regard:

This book is intended for any person that has influence in an enterprise that is aiming to improve its agility. The more the infl uence, the greater the value that the person will be able to derive from this book.

Specifically, the following roles associated with such an enterprise will benefit the most:

Having said this, I also believe the book can be an enabler for conversations between people who have an interest in enterprise agility.

Readers will be able to learn about these topics:

The book is written with an intent to provoke thinking and not with an intent of providing prescriptive solutions. I have shared patterns that I have observed and experienced, which are inhibitors to and are enhancers of agility. If I can get the readers to just think about the relevance of the patterns in the context of their enterprise, I think my book would have served its purpose.

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

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