Commercial Integrator April 2021 - 39

trade relations could spark the economic
recovery, said Kuehl, but shifts in tax policies and regulatory focus could hamper
the turnaround.
House prices are going up but so are
mortgage rates. With a volatile stock market,
unemployment is the key to keeping the
economy from a long-term struggle, he said.

Agility is the Key
Business leaders have a lot more in
common with dinosaurs than most would
probably like to admit. The biggest similarity, said Meyer Agile Information president
Pamela Meyer during her NSCA Business &
Leadership Conference opening keynote, is
the desire to avoid threats and uncertainty.
In her BLC presentation, " Making the
Agility Shift: Creating Agile and Effective
Leaders, Teams and Organizations, " Meyer
highlighted the importance of focusing
on agility in business, not just now in the
pandemic-focused business environment,
but even after there's more certainty in what
comes next.
" Your role as a leader is to strike a
balance between policies that create
stability, efficiency and control and those
with flexibility, agility, curiosity and
innovation, " she said. " You need stability
to sustain performance and flexibility to
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You need stability to
sustain performance
and flexibility to
respond to changes.
- Pamela Meyer
respond to changes. "
Agility, said Meyer, is the ability to
respond effectively to the unexpected and
unplanned and quickly turn challenges into
opportunities. There are two main types of
agility, she said: adaptive and entrepreneurial. Clearly, business leaders are focused
most on the entrepreneurial one.
Agility is about overcoming volatility,
uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity,

said Meyer. Businesses typically follow a
lifecycle that takes them from startup to
growth before a divergent path that leads
them either to acceleration or a plateau or
decline, she said.
" Agility isn't just accelerated planning, "
she said. " It's about doing things differently. "
Agile firms, said Meyer, generate about
30 percent more revenue on average than
stagnant ones so business leaders must ask
themselves not only what can be improved
if they become more agile but what it will
cost them if they don't.
The ultimate metric of your agility, said
Meyer, is sustained performance through
both stable and volatile conditions.
The relational web, Meyer said, helps
you use your skills, talents and resources
to increase your agility through being
relevant, responsive (not reactive), resilient,
resourceful and reflective.
" Agile leaders spot challenges and opportunities and effectively respond, " she said.

Business Benefits of Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion
Ivan Joseph highlighted the importance
of a diverse workforce and leadership
team in his BLC keynote, saying diversity is good for a company's bottom line
because " diverse teams bring diverse
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Commercial Integrator April 2021

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