The event brought together various groups and alliances from the Agile ecosystem that historically gathered separately—often because they promoted different frameworks or agile methodologies—allowing them to realize how much common ground they shared. During the forum, a redefinition of 21st-century management began to take shape: the premise that work and organizations should be viewed as people creating value for other people.
As highlighted by the author of the article, this premise sounds like common sense, but the reality is that "many organizations, particularly large enterprises, do not operate this way today." This occurs because this new approach to organizational leadership—whether termed Agility or otherwise—is not yet universally accepted as the default standard.
A Necessary Evolution
In the past, Agile, human-centric management—that is, management driven by customer centricity—was considered "a sort of exception, even a questionable exception, to the rule of running organizations as top-down bureaucracies. The latter was viewed as the default way to manage any company," notes the article's author. He adds: "Naturally, this is a flawed view. The reality today is that there is growing global consensus around a better way to manage organizations—a collective paradigm we call Agile."
A 2019 survey revealed that Agile was increasingly becoming currency in business and was recognized as a strategic priority by most respondents: "In our digital era, it is no longer a question of whether an organization wants to become Agile, but when, where, and how," the report stated. "Currently, only 12% of participants do not apply Agile practices, and that figure is expected to drop to 4% within just three years."
The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated this trajectory: in fact, 43% of organizations surveyed in a separate study reported that their push for Agile adoption had increased over the preceding 90 days, while another 15% noted it had increased "significantly."
In an era where digital transformation is advanced, Agility is no longer the exception—it is the norm. It must be viewed as the standard approach for managing any enterprise. Moving forward, "top-down bureaucracy must justify itself as a fundamentally detrimental departure from this superior, human-centric way of leading organizations that is Agile."
The New Norm
At this stage, Agile must be understood as the default way of working. "We now have a clearer understanding of what a healthy organization and workplace look like," argues the Forbes article author. "We better understand what good management entails. However, until we establish a form of herd immunity, there is always the risk that the disease of top-down bureaucracy will infiltrate teams or organizations like a virus and undermine progress."
Ultimately, the call for Agile is not merely a push to establish a new framework for managing organizations, but "a call to build a better, human-centric world." To explore this perspective on modern management in greater depth, we recommend reading the full article.