EAC is a discipline with broad awareness of business, technical and transformational agility with deep competence in one or more knowledge areas (e.g., organizational development, culture, change management, technical and enterprise practices, leadership development) and skills such as teaching, mentoring/advising, professional coaching, and facilitating.

EAC practitioners engage with all levels of the organization to support the desired change. Many of the tools and methods used come from several originating professions and require knowledge of their ethical context for proper application.

EAC has roots in organization development (OD) interventions. Borrowing from OD, the first step in such an engagement is systems entry. That culminates in a shared understanding of the goals and objectives. Systems entry also enables an engagement and agreement on how to proceed.

Successfully increasing organizational agility requires some degree of organizational change and a well-thought-out change strategy. The change may be seen as adoption, a transition, or a transformation.

Organizational impediments are often revealed during change. At an enterprise level, impediments are magnified in the cost and scope of their impact. Frequent complaints, challenges, or less than desired outcomes often indicate more significant/more profound organizational impediments that need to be exposed and addressed in the change strategy over compromising agility.

Any change within an organization has at least two aspects, the tangible change (whether technical, business, or organizational) and the human reaction to that change. To effect real change requires more than driving through a list of “change management” to-do’s and helping people understand what it means to them and move through their internal change process to adapt to the change successfully.

Organizations are complex, and changing them is an even more challenging proposition. A structured and informed approach to the change process improves the chances of success of an agile transition.

Agile brings about a mindset shift from “change as an exception” to “change as a norm.” That should infuse change into the organizational change process. Approaching change positively, creatively, collaboratively, and continuously enables an effective and sustainable Agile practice.

Engaging varied large groups and people at an executive level within an enterprise context requires more consideration and planning than team-level facilitation due to the time and dollars invested and the more complex group dynamics involved.

Given the fundamental mindset shifts Agile provokes, education is essential to empower people to do their work differently and allows them to contribute throughout the Agile change process meaningfully. A broad-based education strategy also magnifies the impact of coaching.