How do we organize
for change?  

We suggest the key here is to develop an Agile way of working focused on collaboration and rapid decision-making—“How” is all about organizing change through Agile at scale. 

According to BCG research, Agile is proven to drive success (see figure below). As organizational structures become more dynamic; working in a way that prioritizes collaboration and speed to output will be important. We expect the workplace of the future to be built around decentralization, allowing employees to thrive in tech-enabled and interconnected teams, rather than being reliant on formal reporting hierarchies, rigid job descriptions and processes. 
 

Agile transformation often takes place in response to crisis or urgent situations. But in the post-COVID-19 time, organizations have an unprecedented opportunity to arrest that inflection point to ensure they can use Agile to make considered decisions quickly. But it’s critical, as they get started, to think about how to set up Agile within the remote working model platform. This is not how Agile normally operates, but in the new normal of business as unusual, a hybrid mix of virtual and physical teams will need to be trained and scaled across the organization.

Agile is a key enabler to remote work, as it drives results through an interplay of structural and process enhancements, e.g., backlog planning to continuously structure “to-do” lists and estimate workloads, short working and feedback cycles with rapid decision-making, remote weekly sprint reviews to check out work progress and to inform future planning, and a clear definition of objectives and key results. These are all key elements that are arguably even more important where virtual collaboration is the norm and can cascade even through large-scale B2B organizations.