Agility Shift: Creating Agile and Effective Leaders, Teams, and Organizations - Hardcover

"This book is a tour de force for leaders at every level who must develop a capacity to experiment, adapt, and learn amidst a turbulent VUCA environment. Meyer offers insight that ranges from neurobiology to relational webs; stories that range from leaders of major corporations to UPS managers; the challenges that range from recruiting agile leaders to creating cultures that nurture them. Covering a wide terrain at such a deep level, this is an important book that deserves a wide readership." -- Frank J. Barrett, author of Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons "Meyer provides a powerful framework and accompanying suggestions... to help you immediately start creating an effective culture of agile leaders and teams." -- DeBorah Lenchard, Director of Education & Talent Development, Spot Trading LLC "Brilliant yet simple, The Agility Shift is a must-read for all professionals and will serve as a useful practical guide in today's constantly changing business environment." -- Rohit Manchanda, Trade & Investment Commissioner, India, New South Wales Government, Mumbai "Detailed and highly entertaining... Brimming with compelling examples of agility in action, this is an essential guide to a new and more effective organizational approach." -- Tom Barr, Ph.D., Knowledge Manager, Enablon North America Corp "Clear and insightful... The Agility Shift is packed with relevant and diverse examples that drive significant points about intentionally transforming organizational life." -- Lisa Gundry, Ph.D., Professor and Director, Center for Creativity and Innovation, DePaul University "A must-read... Meyer brings a unique combination of personal and professional experience and her practical approach and tools can help leaders, individuals, teams, and organizations make the shift to being more responsive, innovative and agile. I highly recommend this book!" -- Ann Manikas, VP of Human Resources and Inclusion, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago "The Agility Shift makes clear that if we want to survive and thrive (in good times and in crisis), all individuals, teams, and organizations must make a strategic priority of becoming more agile. Just as importantly, she lays out recommendations for how to do it." -- Greg Owen-Boger, co-author, The Orderly Conversation: Business Presentations Redefined

As contrary as it sounds, "planning" -- as we traditionally understand the term--can be the worst thing a company can do. Consider that volatile weather events disrupt trusted supply chains, markets, and promised delivery schedules. Ever-shifting geo-political tensions, as well as internal political upheaval within U.S. and global governments, derail long-planned new ventures. Technology failures block opportunities. Competitors suddenly change their product or release date; your team cannot meet the pace of innovations in your market niche, leaving you sidelined. There are myriad ways in the current business environment for a company's well-considered business plans to go awry.  Most business schools continue to prepare managers to be effective in stable and predictable environments, conditions that, if they ever existed at all, are long gone. The Agility Shift shows business leaders exactly how to make the radical mindset and strategy shift necessary to create an agile, entrepreneurial organization that can innovate and thrive in complex, ever-changing contexts. As author Pamela Meyer explains, there is much more involved than a reconfiguration of the org chart and job descriptions. It requires relinquishing the illusion of control at the very foundation of most management training and business practice. Despite most leaders' approaches, "Agility is not simply accelerated planning."  Unlike many agility books on the market, The Agility Shift provides specific, actionable strategies and tactics for leaders at all levels of the organization to put into practice immediately to improve agility and achieve results.