------ # The Agile Organisation: From Informal Networks to Complex Effects and Agility **Written By:** - Simon Reay Atkinson - James Moffat **See:** Atkinson_Agile.pdf --------- ## Foreword Agility is the gold standard for Information Age militaries. Facing uncertain futures and new sets of threats in a complex, dynamic, and challenging security environment, militaries around the world are transforming themselves, becoming more information-enabled and network-centric. Command and control is at the heart of these transformations. Traditional approaches to command and control are being questioned, as new approaches are being explored. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this nascent revolution in how militaries organiae, operate, and think about them- selves and their adversaries is the change in the criteria for success. Traditional militaries and military analysis focus squarely on mission effectiveness for a set of selected missions (approved planning scenarios). Information Age militaries searching for a way to deal with the complexities, uncertainties, and risks associated with the 21st century security environment are discovering the virtues of agility, not only as a core competency in operations, but as a value metric for policy and investment decisions. Agility has been a theme in CCRP publications for more than a decade. In *Command Arrangements* (1995), it was noted that a lack of agility threatened mission success. In *Information Age Transformation* (2002), agility was defined as a key characteristic of an Information Age organisation “of paramount importance in an uncertain world,” “a characteristic to be sought even at the sacrifice of seeking to perfect capabilities associated with specific missions or tasks” (page 82). Information Age Transformation also defined the attributes of agility as including responsiveness, robustness, innovative- ness, flexibility, and adaptability (page 83). Power to the Edge (2003) devoted an entire chapter to agility, and added the attribute resiliency, which was formerly included as a sense of robustness, the ability to maintain performance in the face of degradation (pages 123-127). Agility is related to the ability to conduct network-centric operations (NCO) and is associated with Power to the Edge principles. A robustly networked force is, by virtue of its increased connectedness, more agile. An improved information position clearly enables agility, while the concept of speed of command that is associated with a network-centric force is closely related to the responsiveness attribute of agility. On the other hand, collaboration, part of the tenets of NCW, may or may not result in increased agility. It depends upon the skills and experience of the participants, the nature of the situation, and the quality of the collaborative environment. Because collaborative processes offer some real benefits, in and of themselves, understanding how to accomplish them in ways that result in more rather than less agility is important. Self-synchronisation, an important aspect of network-centric operations, is related to a number of the attributes of agility. Power to the Edge principles, particularly those that involve increasing the ability of the edge to understand and act, are related to agility. In fact, *Power to the Edge* states that “edge organizations have the attributes to be agile. This is because agility requires that available information is combined in new ways, that a variety of perspectives are brought to bear, and that assets can be employed differently to meet the needs of a variety of situations” (page 217). The agility of an enterprise is a function of how it is organised and more specifically, a function of its approach to command and control. Approaches to command and control and to the resulting organisation differ significantly with respect to the agility they offer or, perhaps more to the point, with the constraints that are placed on agility, specifically constraints on information sharing, interactions, and constraints on the way assets can be employed. This book, *The Agile Organisation*, explores the nature and behaviours of different kinds of networked enterprises and their implications for military organisations. The authors take us on a conceptual journey across the landscape that is Complexity. They offer us valuable insights into systems, net- works, organizations, and, of course, into the nature of command and control. Atkinson and Moffat have taken a number of theories and concepts articulated and discussed in the CCRP Publication Series, improved and built upon them, and have make a significant contribution to the field. They have also afforded us a rare opportunity to view the challenges we face through a different lens. This book is also an indicant of the growing recognition that new organisational forms and approaches to command and control are needed to meet the security challenges of the 21st century. We look forward to working with colleagues from around the world to better understand the nature of agility and agile organisations. Dr. David S. Alberts Washington, DC May 2005