20. Aug 2026

Changing ahead of the curve

Traditional management systems were built for a world in which change was relatively predictable and could be managed through planning and control. Today, organizations face a fundamentally different reality. As technological, economic, and societal transformations accelerate, the ability to detect emerging shifts and adapt proactively has become a critical source of competitive advantage.

This raises a fundamental question: how can organizations develop the agility and resilience required to thrive in an increasingly uncertain environment? This article aims to shed light on this question.

In today’s turbulent environment, marked by volatility and complexity, organizational agility has become a widely used concept, frequently associated with different interpretations. The quote commonly attributed to Charles Darwin – “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” – can be interpreted as a rather reactive definition of organizational agility: when something changes in the environment, organizations adapt in response.

Filip Caeldries, Professor of Strategy and Organization at TIAS School for Business and Society, who also teaches the Corporate Strategy module in the Executive MBA at Rochester-Bern Executive Programs, suggests a more proactive perspective on the meaning of agility, in which organizations initiate change ahead of external pressure: “The ability to change before the need for change becomes obvious.” Achieving this requires organizations to actively listen to their environment and distinguish noise from meaningful signals – a capability that, in Caeldries’ view, remains underdeveloped in many organizations: “I am surprised by the limited listening capability of many organizations.”

Limited listening capability

“The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed” said the Canadian science-fiction writer William Gibson known for pioneering cyberpunk. It perfectly captures the idea that signals of the future already exist, but only in isolated places, industries, startups, labs, or behaviors. For organizations, the challenge is therefore to identify where parts of that future are already emerging and to tap into them earlier than competitors. In this regard, Caeldries is struck by the number of organizations in which headquarters still operate primarily as controlling authorities, while subsidiaries and operating companies around the world are treated merely as distribution outlets or sales organizations. Such structures often isolate headquarters from operational reality.

As Caeldries emphasizes: “If you really want to be agile as an organization, you have to be at the frontier, where the future is already happening.” Spending time with lead customers is therefore never a bad idea. The most demanding customers, those constantly asking for something new, are often already living in the future and can provide early signals of emerging change.

Why organizational agility has become essential

Organizations increasingly operate in environments characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity – often summarized by the acronym VUCA. Whether today’s world is objectively more turbulent than the past may be debated, but the speed of technological, economic, and societal change undeniably challenges traditional organizational models. As Caeldries explains: “We have no idea where we are going to end up with AI five or ten years from now. In a turbulent environment where change is the only constant, the only way to figure that out is to continuously experiment.”

Rather than relying exclusively on long-term predictions or rigid strategic plans, agile organizations favor experimentation: small-scale initiatives, limited risk exposure, rapid feedback loops, and continuous learning. Ultimately, organizational agility may be defined as the ability to learn faster than the environment changes. The organizations that succeed will not necessarily be those with the strongest resources, but those capable of sensing, learning, and adapting earlier and faster than others.

As Arie de Geus former executive at Royal Dutch Shell, famously stated: “The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition.” Caeldries therefore stresses the importance of institutionalizing learning within organizations: “Learning is not a side product, but an organizational capability that requires investment, effort, planning, and a systematic approach.”

Where should SMEs (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) start?

Filip Caeldries makes little distinction between large and small organizations when discussing agility. He even argues that SMEs are often naturally more agile because communication is more fluid and less hierarchical. In many large corporations, too much decision-making and expression remain concentrated at the top. “Organizations know more than they actually know,” argues Caeldries. Agility begins to disappear when employees start censoring themselves and remain silent. An organization cannot adapt if critical perspectives never reach the surface. All viewpoints must be brought to the table – not only those of senior management.

This idea is closely aligned with principles promoted by Edwin Catmull, American computer scientist and co-founder of Pixar, who asked: “Does the least powerful person in the room feel safe speaking up? If the answer is no, you’ve got a problem.” Catmull emphasizes that even the least powerful individuals in an organization should feel able to speak openly, without fear of blame, humiliation, or abuse of power. Psychological safety therefore becomes a critical condition for organizational agility and resilience. Caeldries also underlines the importance of managers regularly reconnecting with operational reality – for example, by spending one day each month working alongside frontline teams. According to him, the priority of organizations should be to stop killing the agility that already exists internally. A similar idea was expressed by Carol Tomé, CEO of UPS and former executive at The Home Depot. Asked what she brought from Home Depot to UPS, she replied: “The answer to every single problem already exists within the organization. Somebody somewhere knows what to do and how to do it. The leader’s role is to find these people.”

What distinguishes leaders who successfully embed agility at a strategic level?

According to Caeldries, three characteristics stand out:

Humility: Effective leaders recognize that they do not have all the answers and do not need to. They actively seek perspectives and expertise from across the organization.
Psychological safety: They foster a culture in which people feel comfortable speaking up, challenging assumptions, sharing concerns, and contributing ideas without fear of blame or negative consequences.
Unfiltered information flow: They ensure that information reaches decision-makers directly and without distortion. As they move through the hierarchy, signals from customers, frontline employees, and operational teams must not be filtered out.

Underlying all three characteristics is accessibility. Agile leaders remain approachable and connected to their people, enabling information, knowledge, and ideas to flow freely throughout the organization. Ultimately, agility is not about moving faster for the sake of speed. It is about creating the conditions that allow organizations to sense change early, learn continuously, and adapt before circumstances force them to do so. As Caeldries argues throughout the interview, agility already exists in most organizations. The real challenge for leaders is to create an environment in which information flows freely, diverse perspectives are heard, and learning becomes a systematic capability. In a world where the future is already emerging somewhere, the organizations that thrive will be those that recognize it first and act on it.