"Come to the market place, find out what's going on in the building, and get involved!" That's what Michael Klaring, site manager of the Siemens measuring device factory in Berlin, often said to the workforce, says Stefanie Klicks.

"During their working hours, they were able to be inspired by new robots, for example, or to contribute their strengths to non-specialist projects," she says of her five years as a culture change officer at Siemens.

In addition, employees have organized internal training series and passed on know-how to colleagues, says Klicks, who now works independently as an agile coach.

Claudia Künstler, Agile Coach at Sächsische Aufbaubank (SAB) since September 2021, wants to anchor agility in the corporate culture at the new location in Leipzig.

The bank, which advises customers on how to apply for funding from the European Union or the federal government, often has to do with new products for technology funding.

In order to cope with the growing number of employees and external changes, a cultural change is required.

As a first step, Künstler offered seminars on agile working methods, and collaboration tools and feedback processes will be introduced shortly.

"You're finally here!", they called out to her at the start.

Agile forms of organization are concepts that offer employees the freedom to help shape their work, to communicate openly and to deal with mistakes constructively.

So-called agile coaches accompany the use of methods.

“The focus here is on joint, step-by-step learning,” says Klicks.

"Implementation and action are the drivers, unlike lengthy planning and reaction as in the past."

Agility as a panacea?

In a study from 2021, the recruitment agency Hays examined the implementation of agile organizational forms in companies: According to this, almost two-thirds of managers from the human resources area - mainly from industry and services - are already implementing agile organizational forms in companies with more than 1000 employees.

In addition, a third of the more than 1000 respondents stated that Corona had intensified this development.

More and more employers are finding the idea that agile working can increase innovative strength and speed while at the same time making workers happier.

In fact.

At the same time, only twelve percent named the introduction of agile organization as an important HR issue,

In contrast, the field of action “Retain employees” achieved the top spot with 40 percent.

They seem to fail to recognize an indirect win-win effect: Greater freedom for employees can at the same time tie them more closely to the company and thus provide a competitive advantage in the battle for talent.

So is agility a panacea?

Maybe not for everyone.

Agile forms of organization are suitable for creative tasks that have to be dealt with in an interdisciplinary manner and for which people need a high level of self-motivation and self-organization.

Last but not least, the general conditions offered by employers are important, experts say.

According to Agile Coach Klicks, a “call from above” is needed that is based on a corporate culture that is open to change, offers more participation and enables a constructive dialogue in which everyone speaks to one another on an equal footing.

Artist from the SAB emphasizes the importance of the error culture: "It doesn't always have to be the one hundred percent solution," she says.

"You have to try something and be allowed to be wrong."

Cultural and organizational hurdles

The Hays study shows that the public service is the least likely to implement agile forms of organization at around forty percent.

But here, too, the type of cooperation is changing, as Klicks found out in one of her training courses in the Hessian tax administration: For a long time, people there have been trying to rethink cooperation and work more participatively.

The concern is clearly felt.

"The committee is breaking new ground in organizational development and wants to try out other decision-making processes."

According to the respondents to the Hays study, cultural and organizational hurdles slow down agility in companies: In around half of the cases, there is rivalry between units that work agile and those that do not.

Managers find it difficult to deal with agility more often than employees.

Artists know it: “Employees observe how managers live agility.” You can see exactly whether agility is again a new topic that the company is committed to in new German, but ultimately does not give the teams the freedom they need.

She offers managers in particular support in trying out new methods in order to overcome reservations and resistance.

"We've always done it this way" is a sentence that the artist hears more often.

"That in itself is not bad

as long as there is a predominant desire for change,” she says.

A culture change takes time.