Embracing agility in government

By Michael Caracache, Santiago Castillo and Nizar Hneini

In today's rapidly changing world, governments face unprecedented challenges requiring them to be more agile and responsive than ever before. From volatile economic conditions to complex geopolitical landscapes, governments must adapt quickly to meet the needs of their citizens. Agility, a concept borrowed from the software development industry, has emerged as a key strategy for governments to navigate these challenges. This article will explore the concept of agility in government, its significant benefits, such as improved service delivery and responsiveness, and how governments can embrace it.

Agility in government

Agility in government is the ability of an organization to respond quickly and effectively to changing circumstances. It is a mindset that emphasizes flexibility, adaptability, and collaboration. Agile governments are known for delivering high-quality services to their citizens while being strategic, adaptive, and responsive.

The need for government agility arises from several key factors in our BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, and Incomprehensible) world.

Firstly, in policy-making, the brittle nature of modern systems means that technologies and business models, though seemingly stable, can fail unexpectedly, creating sudden and significant challenges for defining specific duties and goals. Governments must adapt policies continuously and embed resilience to manage these fragile elements effectively.

Secondly, in policy monitoring, the anxiety produced by constant change and data influx can make maintaining consistency in metrics challenging. As governments gain real-time insights through technologies like sensors, they must design adaptive monitoring frameworks that mitigate uncertainties, ease stakeholder anxieties, and foster trust in data-driven governance.

Thirdly, in policy enforcement, the non-linear relationships between interconnected systems complicate the identification of responsible parties. Issues often arise from complex system interactions or autonomous AI decisions, where traditional enforcement mechanisms struggle to keep pace. Agile governance models are essential for adapting swiftly to these unexpected, non-linear challenges, ensuring accountability in a complex landscape.

Fourthly, in geographical jurisdiction, the incomprehensible nature of global cyberspace interactions complicates citizen protection across borders. Agile governance provides the flexibility to navigate cross-border complexities, offering innovative, comprehensive approaches that effectively address the unpredictability of interconnected digital ecosystems and protect citizens’ interests.

Lastly, traditional government structures, often siloed, struggle to address complex, multi-dimensional challenges like Mobility as a Service (MaaS), where non-linear interactions occur across transportation, telecommunications, payment, and privacy systems. Agile models facilitate cross-functional, collaborative approaches, equipping governments to respond to multifaceted, increasingly incomprehensible challenges in their scope and interdependencies.

Agility in government offers several benefits, including:

1. Improved responsiveness: Agile governments are more responsive to changing circumstances, allowing them to adapt to new challenges and opportunities quickly. This responsiveness enables governments to deliver high-quality services to their citizens while being strategic, adaptive, and responsive.
2. Enhanced collaboration: Agile governments foster collaboration and cross-functional teams, allowing them to address complex issues from multiple perspectives. This collaboration enables governments to develop more effective solutions and better outcomes for their citizens.
3. Increased efficiency: Agile governments are more efficient in their operations by focusing on delivering value to their citizens through early and continuous service delivery. This efficiency enables governments to achieve more with less while also reducing costs and improving outcomes.
4. Better decision-making: Agile governments exhibit fast and effective decision-making capabilities, aligning with an operating model that supports strategic decision-making frameworks. This alignment enables governments to make timely and responsive decisions while being strategic and adaptive.
5. Improved citizen engagement: Agile governments prioritize citizen engagement and feedback. They seek to fulfill customers' needs through early service delivery and continuous improvement. This engagement enables governments to better understand their citizens' needs and deliver more effective solutions.

Key capabilities to enable governments to respond effectively to challenges and opportunities

To embrace agility in government, organizations must develop several key capabilities. These capabilities enable governments to respond effectively to emerging challenges and opportunities, ensuring they can deliver high-quality services to their citizens.

1. Outward-oriented culture: Agile governments maintain an outward-oriented culture by continuously scanning the environment to address emerging opportunities or challenges early. Focusing on the tangible results achieved in citizens' everyday lives, they understand that they cannot operate in isolation. This approach helps public agencies intervene proactively and ensures that a single organization achieves a few outcomes.
2. Alignment of policies and operating models: Government agility cannot occur in isolation. It depends on aligning policies and operating models across the entire system. Policymakers need to ensure that the whole government system is aligned from top to bottom, with policies oriented toward clear outcomes. This alignment is crucial for achieving coherence and coordinated action across various governmental functions.
3. Workforce adaptability: Leaders must be fast and flexible problem solvers who can mobilize others to address issues, process data, and generate effective solutions. They must possess the necessary resources and energy to implement these solutions quickly. Ensuring the workforce has the right skills for required tasks is essential for maintaining agility.
4. Fast and effective decision-making: Agile governments must also exhibit fast and effective decision-making capabilities. In an imperfect and asymmetric information world, public agencies cannot afford to wait until they have all the facts to make decisions. Instead, they must align with an operating model that supports strategic decision-making frameworks, enabling timely and responsive decisions.
5. High-quality information and skills: Governments cannot efficiently act without sorting and responding to important data. The key to successful information use is filtering out irrelevant data and providing policymakers with the analytical skills to interpret and act on critical information.

Agile governance is a necessity for navigating complexity and driving citizen-centric transformation

Governments worldwide are progressively embracing and injecting the notion of agile into their organizations. The UAE's Government Accelerators and the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency in New Zealand are just some examples of governments that have successfully implemented agile into their organizations.

The UAE adopted agile frameworks in their government accelerators to rapidly innovate and deliver digital services across sectors like healthcare and education. This approach enabled faster response to public needs and smoother integration of new technologies, resulting in higher citizen satisfaction and more efficient, accessible services.

On the other hand, New Zealand's Whānau Ora program embraced agility to shift from siloed services to a holistic, family-centered approach. This agile model provided adaptable, culturally sensitive support, enhancing community well-being and self-sufficiency by addressing unique family needs comprehensively.

In conclusion, agility is essential for governments to navigate the challenges of today's BANI society. By embracing agile governance models, governments can deliver high-quality services to their citizens, respond effectively to emerging challenges and opportunities, and maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly changing market environment. As the world becomes increasingly complex and uncertain, agility is no longer an option for governments but a necessity.

Supporting agile transformation and holistic organizational change

Roland Berger offers expertise in implementing agile methodologies and fostering holistic transformation across various domains. Key areas of focus include:

• Adopting agile methodologies: Guiding organizations in integrating agile principles into their operations, using frameworks such as Quantum organizations, DAOs, and Hyper Agility. This involves tailored coaching and training to build agile teams and develop leaders who can navigate complex, dynamic environments.
• Enhancing organizational agility: Identifying and addressing structural and procedural barriers to promote greater adaptability and collaboration. This includes streamlining processes, encouraging cross-functional cooperation, and embedding a culture of continuous improvement.
• Crafting comprehensive transformation roadmaps: Developing detailed roadmaps that align transformation efforts with strategic goals. These roadmaps outline clear visions, define milestones, and provide actionable implementation plans to ensure measurable progress.
• Scaling digital factories and advancing digital strategies: Leveraging agile frameworks to expand digital capabilities and enhance digitization strategies . This encompasses supporting teams and leaders in adopting Agile Digital Transformation (ADT) and scaling digital initiatives effectively.
• Building agile structures for omnichannel models: Designing adaptive organizational structures with a customer-centric focus. This approach integrates agile methods to create seamless, consistent experiences across various channels, fostering collaboration and responsiveness.

Approach to agile transformation

Roland Berger partners with organizations to embed agility at every level, beginning with strategic alignment and stakeholder collaboration. This foundation enables organizations to redefine their purpose, vision, and mission in accordance with agile principles.

Key steps include reshaping governance structures, enhancing leadership capabilities, and refining core processes to create a resilient and responsive environment. As transformation progresses, adjustments to workforce skills, structures, and capabilities ensure that agility becomes a sustainable aspect of the organization’s DNA.

This approach equips organizations to navigate evolving challenges and demands while maintaining flexibility and focus on their strategic objectives.