The Business Strategy Analyst with Jules Nartey-Tokoli:: When momentum becomes a trap

… how organizations can shift from inertia to adaptive agility

In the prior article, we noted that transforming an organization from a rigid “freight train” into a flexible, responsive “car” requires deliberate structural and cultural shifts. This journey begins with recognizing the pitfalls of experience-heavy hiring and rigid reward systems, which can trap organizations in cycles of stagnation.

In this third and final part, we will see that by embracing decentralization, empowering teams, and fostering a culture of continuous learning, organizations can break free from inertia and thrive in today’s fast-paced business landscape. This article explores the key principles and practices that enable organizations to transform into agile, adaptive entities, poised to navigate uncertainty and seize new opportunities.

From Rigidity to Responsiveness: The Core Levers That Enable True Organizational Agility

Transforming an organization from a rigid “freight train” into a flexible, responsive “car” requires deliberate structural and cultural shifts supported by global research. One of the most powerful levers is decentralizing decision-making, which effectively shortens the organization’s braking distance.

When teams are given authority to make local and time-sensitive choices, they can respond to changing conditions without waiting for approvals from a distant center of power. McKinsey & Company consistently finds that distributed decision rights are a defining feature of agile organizations, noting that excessive centralization makes turning slow and costly.

Alongside this, leaders can create modular, cross-functional teams that function like steerable vehicles within the enterprise. By organizing work into small, multidisciplinary units that can test, learn, and pivot independently, organizations prevent the entire structure from being dragged into every adjustment. Research on agile transformation—including studies summarized by Harvard Business School Online—shows that such teams are crucial for flexibility and rapid innovation.

Agility also depends on embedding continuous-adaptation processes—the organizational equivalent of habitual route planning. Instead of relying on episodic, large-scale change initiatives, organizations should adopt cycles of sensing, experimentation, rapid feedback, and scaling what works. The World Economic Forum describes this model as “continuous adaptation,” emphasizing that adaptability emerges from frequent recalibration rather than occasional overhaul.

To support this learning loop, leaders must invest in psychological safety. When employees feel safe reporting problems, raising concerns, or admitting mistakes, organizations can “reverse” or change course before damage accumulates. Research from the WEF and the psychological-safety literature shows that such environments produce faster learning and higher performance because teams are unafraid to surface real conditions.

Another pillar of organizational agility is simplifying and standardizing the core operations so the system remains stable even while front-line teams innovate. McKinsey’s work on enterprise agility stresses that agility requires a reliable backbone—clear protocols, standard work, and shared norms—paired with flexible customer-facing teams. Without this stable core, adaptation becomes chaotic; with it, teams can experiment safely.

Measurement systems also need to reinforce flexibility rather than inertia. Instead of rewarding individual heroics and relentless forward motion, organizations should use metrics that track collaboration, learning velocity, customer value, and time-to-pivot. Both McKinsey and Harvard Business Review warn that incentive systems emphasizing only speed or short-term wins unintentionally maintain freight-train behavior.

Ultimately, leadership mindset determines whether agility endures. Leaders must frame change as continual rather than episodic, modeling humility by admitting errors, showing curiosity, and demonstrating comfort with changing course.

African Union frameworks such as Agenda 2063, referenced earlier, along with the African Development Bank (AfDB) scholarship on institutional resilience, highlight the importance of people-centered, transformative leadership in building adaptive institutions—principles that apply equally inside private organizations. Leaders who embrace these behaviors help their organizations behave more like cars: able to stop quickly, turn effectively, choose new routes, and still reach their goals.

A practical way for leaders to evaluate their progress is through a simple checklist:

• They should ask whether decisions requiring less than 24–48 hours are still routed through a single executive—a clear bottleneck.
• They should assess whether small teams are running weekly experiments and sharing their results; if not, pilot teams should be launched.
• They should examine whether performance systems reward knowledge-sharing rather than secrecy, and whether mistakes are openly discussed and used to adjust course.

These quick checks align closely with proven agility practices documented by McKinsey, the World Economic Forum, and Harvard Business Review, and they help leaders determine whether their organization is truly becoming more like a car—flexible, adaptive, and ready for whatever route the future requires.

Steering Organizations Toward Adaptive, Sustainable Success

Transforming an organization from a rigid, slow-moving “freight train” into a flexible, adaptive “car” is neither accidental nor instantaneous—it is the result of intentional structural redesign, cultural renewal, and courageous leadership. Across global research—from McKinsey to the World Economic Forum, Harvard Business Review, and African institutional scholarship—the message is consistent: agility emerges when organizations

1. Decentralize decision-making
2. Reduce bureaucratic drag

• Reward creativity, and

1. Embrace continuous learning.

These shifts do more than increase operational speed; they build the capacity to sense change early, respond intelligently, and sustain performance in environments defined by uncertainty.

Ultimately, agility is not merely a set of practices but:

1. A mindset and a way of operating.
2. It requires leaders who model humility, empower teams, and treat adaptation as a permanent discipline rather than a temporary project.

• It demands structures that enable local action, cultures that encourage curiosity and psychological safety, and systems that reward experimentation instead of conformity.

Organizations willing to embrace these principles position themselves not only to survive disruption but to navigate it confidently—turning challenges into opportunities and charting new routes toward growth. In a world where conditions shift faster than ever, the organizations that thrive will be those built not for inertia, but for movement.

Final reflection

If your organization behaves like a freight train it may have great momentum — but momentum without steerability is perilous. A crash can be sudden and costly. The car metaphor isn’t about smallness or chaos; it’s about intentional design: a stable chassis (clear purpose, standards, and governance) plus steerable, empowered teams and continuous sensing. That combination is what lets organizations stop, re-route, and still reach their destination in volatile markets.

As Peter Senge warned, yesterday’s solutions can become today’s problems — so build your organization to detect those problems early and to change course gracefully. In the language of modern management: move from structural inertia to structural flexibility, from freight-train thinking to a fleet of well-driven vehicles.

Please let’s interact: 1 (914) 259-0242

[email protected]

www.soleilvision.com

The author is a dynamic entrepreneur and the Founder and Group CEO of Groupe Soleil Vision, made up of Soleil Consults (US), LLC, NubianBiz.com and Soleil Publications. He has an extensive background In Strategy, Management, Entrepreneurship, Premium Audit Advisory, And Web Consulting. With professional experiences spanning both Ghana and the United States, Jules has developed a reputation as a thought leader in fields such as corporate governance, leadership, e-commerce, and customer service. His publications explore a variety of topics, including economics, information technology, marketing and branding, making him a prominent voice in discussions on development and business innovation across Africa. Through NubianBiz.com, he actively champions intra-African trade and technology-driven growth to empower SMEs across the co

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