Agile 2

9Moving Fast Requires Real-Time Risk Management

Have you ever noticed how Agile squirrels are? They can leap between branches that are up to 10 feet apart,¹ and they can scurry along the side of a brick building, their tiny claws grasping the edges of the bricks with lightning speed. Their speed enables them to make millisecond decisions, changing their grasp as needed to keep their hold or changing their direction if a tree branch proves unexpectedly unstable—all in time intervals so short that humans cannot track it.

Source: www.pickpik.com/untitled-squirrel-forest-rodent-tree-park-40164

When a squirrel is still, watching, its head twitches so fast that a human cannot see it move—that is how fast they change their focus. Many small animals tend to have fast reaction times,² but not all. Worms have slow reaction time. Sloths dwell in trees like squirrels do, yet sloths are notoriously slow-moving. So it depends on whether fast reaction time is important for that species' survival in their particular niche. The same is true for organizations: some need speed to survive, while others do not. Usually speed means agility—the ability to rapidly detect that change is needed and respond without delay.

Agility reduces to being able to change one's mind rapidly, in response to something not going as expected—in other words, in response to a newly perceived risk. For a squirrel, ...