We help our clients cope with the changing business landscape by introducing agile ways of working

We enable companies to unleash the full potential of their employees in a fast-changing and increasingly complex world while maintaining the human-centric perspective. We rely on agile leadership and steering to help clients create focus and alignment using strategic themes and time-based goals such as Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).

We understand that companies can struggle to keep up with the competition and that people find it hard to cope with expectations in complicated organizational settings. We aim to create an environment where we set a common direction with the clients’ employees in focus. We believe that empowering people and using an approach focused on shorter learning cycles is the key to achieving desired results. Having a clear and aligned direction and inclusive way of working are fundamental factors for releasing the power of the whole organization.

The business landscape is becoming increasingly complex and changeable, making it more difficult to anticipate future trends within an industry or company. While it may sound daunting at first,  embracing this complexity is the best way forward, which is why companies need to build capacity to adapt fast enough to manage the uncertainty that surrounds us.

We help our clients cope with the changing business landscape by introducing agile ways of working that enable a flexible organization that can manage rapid change. And we coach leaders and teams to take the next step in their transformation journey. We use methods such as design sprint and design studio to boost creativity, reduce bias and build on an entire group’s ideas so they can achieve more in less time.

Agile leadership & culture

• A company’s culture determines how well it can seize opportunities in a changing business climate, and developing this culture starts with the mindset and behaviors within an organization. It involves collaborating, viewing failures as opportunities and exploring the unknown. This is best achieved when there is transparency and openness on every level of management to ensure psychological safety for all.
• Agile leadership is built on a strong belief in individuals – the foundation of leadership philosophy and an essential for any agile organization. In our experience, leaders are the key for cultivating change. A leader can either stand in the way or enable change by promoting a growth mindset and removing obstacles for their teams.

Strategic themes through OKRs

• OKR (Objectives and Key Results) is a goal management framework that helps companies execute their strategy by defining clear objectives for what to achieve with precise, measurable results that indicate when it is done.
• OKRs don’t “cascade down” as in traditional top-down steering. Rather, they align bottom up. This fundamental difference is essential for understanding how this type of steering helps companies overcome structural silos or misaligned directions.
• By using OKRs, companies can establish a natural structure for planning that help teams and individuals focus their energy on what matters most, ultimately creating a more productive and sustainable work environment.
• Most organizations and businesses are skilled in driving projects and activities. But focusing on project deliverables and output doesn’t ensure a company is headed in the right direction. The starting point should instead be on the desired outcome. The OKR framework helps organizations drive business forward by enabling this shift in mindset from output to outcome.

From our perspective, transparency and alignment are the core of the OKR framework. It’s about making business priorities clear and easy to understand, and ensuring that the whole organization is working in the same direction.

Emy Haftor, Senior Manager at Ascend