Okay, when we ‘do not remove old cows from the ditch’ anymore (this is an adaption of a Dutch saying) we are ready to start cycling. But is that so? Do we need to answer some questions first maybe? Like, do we know where we’re going? Depending on our goal, we could decide to use an MTB, a race bike, a velocipede, a tandem or a unicycle, for example. We need to choose the sort of wheels we are going to use, and the right saddle to keep our rear end happy. Are we going to take luggage? Did we think about our safety along the road? So do we need a helmet? What do we need when the bike breaks down? Are we going to use GPS or a map? Are we going to use a health or sports app to monitor how we are doing? What sort of clothes should we wear?

Those who thought that apart from staying upright with a bike, cycling is otherwise easy, seem to be mistaken over and over again. We need to be prepared. We need knowledge about our starting position to achieve the performance we expect from ourselves, which our physical body and mind in combination with our equipment is capable of delivering. So first position yourself and then start performing.

Crucial position points

In terms of organisation performance it’s completely the same. We need to create an optimal starting position, start cycling, start performing and therefore become Agile. Although I explained in my previous blog posts why Agile is a non-concrete and abstract phenomenon, and that if we start cycling we are Agile by nature, I will also keep on using the term and not allow readers to forget about it in relation to organizational capability. Let’s talk about the organizational positioning points to focus on. Most of our worldwide enterprises are not using a bicycle yet, or maybe a very old one. They first of all need to buy a new bicycle and realize the following five crucial position points before they can start cycling and become a high performer. These are:

• Collaboration principles, as this is a start for the necessary social innovation to be able to transform.
• Your governance: this should support creating flow in organizing work within the organization.
• An IT production process ‘From Idea to IT’, based on architectural thinking throughout the complete life cycle of your IT landscape, should be in place to continuously deliver business impact.
• Your technology should be able to adapt to changing requirements and transience should be managed.
• Your Infrastructure should support operational excellence.

These five points need to be designed in such a way that they facilitate the fastest way to bring an Idea (input) to IT (output) within the organization. In terms of cycling, it means cycling from A to B via the shortest route. This while it meets the highest possible performance, with technical depth and at the highest quality requirements.