Agile Alliance members get free access to select Comparative Agility tools. Go to the Comparative Agility service provider page, make sure you’re logged in, and you’ll see a link on the left-hand side.
The following is an AI summary of the event.
The session explored how individual resilience and organizational adaptability reinforce each other, and how Agile Alliance members can measure both using two Comparative Agility assessments.
Speaker Kelly Geyer noted that many transformations are labeled successful because projects launch on time and on budget, yet about 88% fail to achieve their intended business outcomes. A transformation only succeeds if people are still working differently a year later and the organization can continue adapting. Many agile efforts stall because they optimize ceremonies and velocity but ignore whether people and systems can absorb ongoing change.
She introduced two Comparative Agility tools.
The Individual Change Resilience Assessment (18 questions) measures four areas: growth mindset and learning, self-management under pressure, adaptability in uncertain situations, and resilience plus leadership influence during change. In a short audience poll, participants rated themselves relatively high. Kelly described resilience as a skill that can be strengthened by using the assessment’s recommendations to create a personal improvement backlog and retesting later.
The Organizational Adaptive Capability Assessment (24 questions, launching this week) evaluates six areas: sensing and prioritizing change, governance and infrastructure, internal change capability, adaptive culture and behavior, leadership sponsorship, and sustained adoption.
When participants rated their organizations, scores were much lower. Common gaps included launching too many initiatives at once, weak coordination across programs, and poor measurement of real adoption. Kelly described a retailer running nine major transformations simultaneously, where employee stress reflected systemic overload rather than individual weakness.
Her point was simple: resilient people alone cannot compensate for an overloaded system, and a well-designed system still struggles if individuals lack resilience.
She suggested two actions. First, Agile Alliance members can take the Individual Change Resilience Assessment through the member resource guide, review the recommendations, and use them to guide personal development or team discussions. Second, once the organizational assessment is available, leaders can run a quick self-assessment, focus on low-scoring areas, and identify practical improvements such as capacity checks or stronger change-management skills.
The central question shifts from managing a single transformation to building an organization that continually adapts. The two assessments offer a practical starting point.
