Within this second group, we identified a select set of organizations (represented by 10 percent of the entire sample) that were driving highly successful agile transformations. They were embracing agility at scale to create and capture value instead of treating agile as team-level experiments in discrete departments. This means reimagining the entire organization as a network of high-performing teams, each going after clear, end-to-end business-oriented outcomes, and possessing all of the skills needed to deliver, such as a bank boosting the performance of customer journeys; a retailer analyzing turns and earns of product categories; a mining company reviewing production- and safety-process steps; an oil and gas company planning wells; a machinery player undertaking full product management, from R&D to go-to-market; or a teleoperator simplifying products. The teams are essentially interconnected mini businesses, obsessed with creating value rather than just delivering functional tasks.

However, agility at scale goes beyond adding more agile teams and team-level practices. The broader operating model, the connective tissue between and across the teams, also needs to be transformed. The organizations driving highly successful agile transformations made sure to do that by building an effective, stable backbone. This means optimizing the full operating model across strategy, structures, processes, people, and technology by going after flat and fluid structures built around high-performing cross-functional teams, instituting more frequent prioritization and resource-allocation processes, building a culture that enables psychological safety, and decoupling technology stacks.

Enterprise agility is thus a paradigm shift away from multilayered reporting structures, rigid annual budgeting, compliance-oriented culture, separation of business and technology, and other traits dominating organizations for the past hundred years. If this is true, and not just hype, a discontinuity of this magnitude should provide an opportunity for organizations to turn their operating models into a competitive advantage—as did early adopters of lean in the 1990s.

While individual case studies and agile success stories have been plentiful, having quantifiable results and a larger sample allowed us to go beyond anecdotes for the first time. Two major findings emerged.

1. Agility results in a step change in performance and makes it possible to overtake born-agile organizations. Highly successful agile transformations typically delivered around 30 percent gains in efficiency, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and operational performance; made the organization five to ten times faster; and turbocharged innovation. While conventional wisdom sometimes sees these targets as contradictory (for example, efficiency at the cost of employee engagement), our results show otherwise. The respondents, on average, reported gains across four dimensions of performance, out of seven included in the survey.

This step change also showed up as a competitive advantage. Organizations that achieved a highly successful agile transformation had a three times higher chance of becoming a top-quartile performer among peers than those who had not transformed. And they also overtook the born-agile organizations: they not only had a higher chance of becoming a top-quartile performer, but also had a greater chance of achieving a more mature operating model across all dimensions.

2. Instead of waiting for agility to happen bottom-up, organization leaders need to take charge. Our survey asked respondents in detail what actions they took before and during their agile transformations. Our analysis then compared the close to 300 highly successful transformations with the 580 less successful ones to distill what they did differently. Four elements stood out in our logistic regression model, and together these formed a recipe that raises the chance of success from an average of 30 percent to 75 percent:

• Ensure the top team gets it. Before you start, spend sufficient time up front to ensure the top team masters the concepts and can lead the change.
• Be intentional and go after value. Be clear on how agile creates value and have the top team lead the organization to pursue it in a structured manner instead of relying on bottom-up piloting and waiting for agility at scale to emerge.
• Go beyond agile teams to build connective tissue. In the scope of your transformation, rewire the entire operating model (strategy, structure, process, people, and tech) to make sure it supports and connects rather than holds back the team.
• Maintain a high speed and use front-runners. Complete the main phase of the agile transformation in less than 18 months to preserve momentum and avoid exhausting the organization; go even faster in selected front-runner areas to demonstrate commitment and early results.