HBR IdeaCast

Staying Agile Beyond a Crisis

May 26, 2020

Darrell Rigby, a partner at Bain & Company and co-author of 'The Agile C-Suite', discusses the swift adoption of agile principles during the pandemic. He emphasizes the need for organizations to maintain their newfound nimbleness by empowering decision-making at lower levels and streamlining processes. Rigby highlights the importance of agile leadership and its application beyond tech sectors like Amazon and Microsoft. He also warns against reverting to bureaucratic methods and shares insights on building sustainable systems for ongoing adaptability and success.

25:45

Creator website

Episode guests

Darrell Rigby

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

2min

Embracing Agile Leadership

13min

Embracing Agility in Turbulent Times

5min

Building Systems for Sustainable Organizational Success

4min

Finding the Balance in Agile Transformation

4min

Darrell Rigby, partner at Bain & Company, says many firms have rapidly adopted agile principles to react to the coronavirus crisis. Namely, they’ve been ditching bureaucratic planning processes and instead fast-tracking ideas, holding focused meetings, and empowering decisions at lower levels of the organization. He argues that C-suite leaders should keep this newfound organizational nimbleness for good and explains how they can. With Sarah Elk and Steve Berez, Rigby wrote the HBR article “The Agile C-Suite” and the new book Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos.

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