Organizations struggle to implement strategy due to a “change-readiness gap” between what leaders intend and what teams are actually able to execute. Enterprise agility depends on aligning intent, authority, structure and trust so teams can act with clarity, adapt quickly and deliver results.
This report explores the “change-readiness gap” — the distance between an organization’s intent to adapt and its ability to execute — and why enterprise agility falters down in practice.
Building on the Manifesto for Enterprise Agility, it examines how four conditions must align: clear intent, decision authority close to the work, structures designed for flow, and the trust needed to surface risks, learn quickly and adapt.
Drawing on PMI research with executives and project professionals, the report shows how these challenges are experienced differently across the organization and offers practical ways to strengthen alignment, reduce friction and improve execution.
Rather than approaching agility as a framework or process choice, it provides a practical lens on the organizational conditions that determine whether change efforts succeed or fail.
of executives say that empowering decisions at the edge is the most difficult principle of enterprise agility to achieve or sustain
of executives agree that collaboration and transparency are essential agile values
of executives believe their operating model supports rapid allocation of capital and talent
See how gaps in intent, authority, structure and trust prevent organizations from turning strategy into results.
Understand how executives and project professionals experience change-readiness differently across the organization.
Learn what leaders and project teams can do to align intent, authority, structure and trust to strengthen execution.
By examining the space between executive and practitioner perspectives, we identified four obstacles that hinder enterprise agility:
Strategic intent loses clarity as it moves through the organization, making it harder for people to adapt confidently.
Authority is far removed from where value is created and adaptation needs to occur.
Work stalls as operating models designed for stability struggle to absorb and respond to continuous change.
Teams lack the trust needed to surface risks, challenge assumptions and adapt effectively.
– Terence Mauri
Founder, Hack Future Lab
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As business environments have evolved, operating in a full continuum of delivery practices that fit organizations’ needs has become table stakes. Recently, PMI & Agile Alliance joined forces to drive impact and the future evolution of the broader project management discipline together.
Enterprise Agility is the next step in our joint mission to deliver large-scale value by introducing agility beyond teams and projects to the entire organizational system, including leadership, operating models, execution governance, and culture.
We’re building on the PMI and Agile Alliance legacies by expanding the broader vision for the project profession, focusing on value creation regardless of method, and evolving from project- and product-level to continuous, enterprise-level value flow.
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