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PANDORA BOX | Bouncing forward in Covid19 - Is it time to pair Agility with Resilience?

Updated: Sep 27, 2021

Ha Dang - Weatwork.co


Founder & CEO of WEATWORK.CO discussed two of the most popular concepts in organizational transformation during Covid19: AGILITY & RESILIENCE. However, instead of separating the two, she explained why in order to bounce forward, not just bounce back in Covid19, organizations should take both of them.


1. Agility vs. Resilience
2. Why is Agility not enough?
3. How to transform the entire organization with both?






Covid19 represents the most shocking & disruptive waves in the VUCA world. In this new VUCA world, Arie de Geus’ statement rings true that the ability to learn faster than the competitor may be the only sustainable competitive advantage in the future.


"With traditional structures and business models disappearing during Covid19, entire organizations are dealing with ambiguity and insecurity on a larger scale. They are in learning mode and what motivates them to change and learn are mostly pain or a sense of urgency" - Katharina Lange.


So how can leaders keep up with this continuous sense of pain and urgency without burning out the workforce? Experts say Agility is not enough, it is time to pair Agility with Resilience so we can bounce forward, not just bounce back in Covid19.


However, what are they actually? How to paint the traits of the agile & resilient leaders & how to transform the entire organization with both of them?

1. Agility vs. Resilience


"Agility is to adjust quickly in response to changes affecting customers, agency operations, and the broader ecosystem" - "Resilience is to enable the organization to withstand potential future disruptions" - Delloite


"Resilient organizations create contingency plans to guide agile responses; agility allows resources to surge, allowing for resilience with lower investment redundancy" - Delloite


However, the study takes too much time & effort to understand the concepts and their application, we create the graphic below to explain in a simple way the difference between "AGILITY" & "RESILIENCE"

Agility & Resilience explains the organisational ability to learn & react to changes & the ability to anticipate & prepare for changes based on the understanding of internal & external factors affecting changes

2. Why is Agility not enough?


The more Agile the company, the more personal stress employees experienced (2018, surveyed 471 North American companies)

  • Focusing on Agility without also developing Resilience can lead to increased stress and business results that fall short of expectations (2017, a Humana study)

  • Pursuing Agility without investing in Resiliency is risky because it creates frAgility – unsupported exposure to surprises and shocks."

  • Companies that had the foresight to develop higher levels of Agility and Resilience among their employees were more competitive and profitable than their peers, even in highly turbulent environments.

Weatwork.co creates the graphic on the left to explain in a simply way the difference between "AGILITY only" & the combination of "AGILITY + RESILIENCE"

⛵️ "Organizations should develop both Agility and Resilience together, and that this should be done across multiple levels that include individuals, teams, and leaders" - MCCANN ET AL.


3. How to transform the whole organization with both?


The more Agile the company, the more personal stress employees experienced (2018, surveyed 471 North American companies)

It took us 5 working days to capture all KEYWORDS of how much work needs to be done to deliver Agility & Resilience in your organizations in few leading business magazines.


We got around 100 keywords with the level of importance associated with the bigger or smaller letters.



However our coaching experiences show that too diversified standards & expectations slow down the understanding & application of the new concepts.

Therefore, we mainstream Agility & Resilience with Goal Management in any organization.


As our experiences tell that Covid19 has changed leaders' mindsets in lowering investment redundancy by more focusing on GOALS & simplifying all resources to get to achieve GOALS.

Watch our video clip here to understand why we need to manage Goals in developing Agility & Resilience during Covid19





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Weatwork.co is the flagship team-aligning platform that has been firstly introduced in Vietnam.


Weatwork.co's products are exclusively customized for Vietnamese & Asian working cultures. They turn individuals & teams' ideas & innovations into high-impact & organization-wide actions via designing thinking, infographics, animated video clips, & comics.


Weatwork.co's mission is also to revisit organizational & people development models in Vietnam and in the world, with an aim to preparing for purpose-driven leaders & people-centric organizations in the face of the fast-changing world of business.


Read more about WEATWORK.CO here


Contact us at support@weatwork.co


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