In my book agility refers to the manager’s ability to increase their self-awareness, think differently, and create the organizational change required to achieve and sustain growth. This definition emphasizes self-awareness as the foundational requirement for any manager to achieve if they want their organization to become more agile. While the thousands of other books, articles, and resources on management provide wonderful learning opportunities, this book will go beyond the traditional approaches and challenge the manager in a volatile world to accomplish the following three tasks in order to increase their self-awareness.

· Increase reflection time: Instead of responding to emails, putting out the proverbial fires, and attending endless meetings, the agile manager needs more time alone to reflect upon the bigger questions, issues, and concerns facing the organization. The amount of reflection time is in direct proportion to the amount of responsibility. Therefore, the greater the level of responsibility, the more reflection time is needed.

· Ask relevant questions: During the increased reflection time, the agile manager operating in a volatile world needs to ask relevant questions. The questions need to focus on their internal awareness as well as their external presence within the organization. To assist the reader this publication provides over 100 questions to answer.

· Challenge assumptions: As the manager asks relevant questions, it is imperative they challenge previously held assumptions. There can be little progress towards agility at the organizational level if the manager is unable to demonstrate an agile mind. Employees, clients, and others will value the flexibility of thought, the elasticity of attitude, and the audacity of vision that accompany challenging one’s assumptions.

Since professional development is linked directly to personal growth, engaging in each of these three activities on a regular basis will help increase one’s self-awareness. Armed with a deeper sense of self, the manager can help the organization achieve the level of agility required to achieve and sustain growth in a volatile world.

Questions to consider:

· How much time do you set aside each day to reflect upon your organization’s agility?

· How often do you ask the relevant questions required to help your organization achieve a new level of agility?

· How often do you challenge the assumptions that you make, or that others make when assessing a situation?