Using Agile to Ride the Waves of Change

The ability to quickly adapt to changes in the business environment is no longer a nice to have – it is a requirement to survive and thrive. The pace of change within organizations has increased, is more unpredictable, and is multi-directional. What’s more, is that the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated disruptions in business due to wider adoption of technology, higher consumer demand for immediacy, all while normalizing the need for continuous endless change.

As OD and change management professionals, our field is pivotal in helping organizations through these rapid and continually changing times. Incorporating agile practices into the organizations we work with can help them successfully ride these waves of change.

Organizational Agility provides a foundation for sustained performance as it enables companies to make timely and effective responses to change.

Key Learning Points from this Session Include:

• Understand the concept of agility and why we need to build adaptable organizations
• Become familiar with agile processes that can be blended with your current change management practices
• Explore how agility can be leveraged with and even enhance remote work
• Gain insight into how companies are using agile practices through real world examples

Rachael L. Narel, Ph.D., CISA

Rachael has spent over 20 years in the IT and software fields, having experience in virtually every functional area of an organization through both team and leadership roles. Her diverse background includes organization development, change management, strategic planning and process improvement, product management and marketing, new product development, and customer service, sales and support.

Rachael is an Assistant Professor at Benedictine University where she teaches in the Master of Science of Management and Organization Behavior program and continues to pursue research in the areas of Organizational Agility, Thriving, And Digital Transformation.  She also consults in practice at Peters & Associates where she partners with clients and prospects to understand business vision, goals, and challenges, and assists in uncovering business solutions and technology that will help immediately and in the future with a focus on user adoption and change management practices.

Eric Willeke

Eric helps leaders make a difference.

Lean and Agile mindsets, principles, and behaviors are valuable at any level or location in a company, and they collectively represent some of the most powerful tools leaders can apply in today’s business world. Eric partners with leaders at all levels in applying these techniques to get better results through improved change management, better steering and alignment, and deep focus on the outcomes that matter. He engages across many industries and in some of the world’s largest and most complex companies, as well as in smallest, high-growth startups. He helps by instilling agile business management techniques, accelerating deployment of critical initiatives, and mentoring the executives leading large-scale agile transformation efforts.  He is co-founder and Principal of Elevate.to. He is a SAFe Fellow, SPCT, and a principal contributor to the Scaled Agile Framework.