Take a deep look into how HR can play a role in organisational design

In April 2019, MERIT had the honour of welcoming one of the UK’s most influential thinkers in HR, Perry Timms, for a dynamic webinar entitled “Organisational Design for Agility”. The international and two-time TEDx speaker and award-winning author and HR strategist offers exclusive and progressive insight into how businesses can foster creativity while maximising working hours. “Fast paced, concise, packed with good, clear info…,” wrote one of MERIT’s executive attendees. “If this webinar is anything to go by, I strongly recommend future MERIT webinars!”

If the only constant is change, is Agile the new norm?

This webinar, in particular, was designed to increase understanding of agility and how businesses need to think and lead with an agile approach in order to stay competitive and maintain creativity and efficiency in a rapidly changing atmosphere. Perry Timms describes the context for HR strategists: “In HR – the world of people – the digital era gives an enormous opportunity, but also some enormous challenges in creating a society and workplaces which are incredibly digitally enabled. We hear all sorts of theories and concepts about automation, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) to the point that we are confused, excited and frightened – all in the same emotional package.”

A roadmap to agile design

Timms addresses the imperative of building new business models that incorporate agile organisation, meaning companies need to change the way they think and operate. However, he highlights that “You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete,” quoting R. Buckminster Fuller.

What is needed to embrace organisational design for agility? Timms unpacks the things firms need in order to set themselves up as an agile workplace. Can you start being comfortable with the reality of the changes needed to re-orient your organisation? Is agility a mindset or a methodology? How to balance agility and stability in everyday operations?

The Googles, Facebooks and Amazons of the world

Practical examples in the presentation show how companies from around the world have taken advantage of the energy and methodologies of agile design to increase productivity while making adaptability and sustainability part of their thinking. While change within an organisation is never easy, Timms showcases how agile design can be a successful method for adapting to changes in innovation and technology.

Companies can transform their entire philosophy by embracing a wholesome approach or a collective endeavour that is led by purpose, made possible of course by agility. The more your company can take advantage of digital and organisational advances, the more they can begin to shift the way work gets done. Find out about the milestones of implementing agility and design thinking in the workplace.

The why, what and how answered live

In a lively Q&A session, Perry Timms welcomes questions about the challenges and hands-on experiences of the HR and executive webinar audience. Just some of the most pressing ones are:

• Where do you start with introducing agility? (min 43:33)

• What are some of the biggest mindset shifts that have been acquired by leaders for agile to be successful? (min 51:44)

• Can public institutions become agile? (min 49:33)

• What is the significance of emotional intelligence communication skills in agile teams?

• How do you track agility in an organisation? Such live discussions, empowering peer learning insightful interaction with thought leaders, are an indispensable asset of learning communities, such as the MLC dedicated to bringing people and knowledge together and designed for corporate HR executives and talent and senior learning experts from various industries. (min 47:03)

Tune in to the learning community

Being a Merit Leadership Community (MLC) member means having access to industry thought-leaders’ webinars that are designed to equip you with the latest trends, as well as practical roadmaps on how to improve your learning & people development strategies. If your agenda covers issues surrounding emotional intelligence, leadership, motivation, and transformative purpose, then being a member of the MERIT Leadership Community can be an impactful way to stay abreast, engage with peers and gain exposure to diverse industry perspectives that help reach strategic goals, making the most of in-house potential through learning, exchange and benchmarking.

Watch the recording of the webinar and Q&A session:

Organisational Design for Agility: If the only constant is change, is Agile the new norm?