Most businesses value agility. It is one of those words that appears everywhere, especially in fast-growing companies.

But being agile does not mean constantly changing direction.

In fact, too much change can create exactly the opposite of what a business needs: confusion, duplicated work, unclear priorities, and teams that stop trusting the plan because they expect it to change again next week.

For me, real agility sits somewhere between structure and flexibility.

You need a plan. You need priorities. You need enough consistency for people to know what they are working towards.

But you also need to recognise when the information you have today is different from the information you had when the plan was made.

And that is often where things become difficult.

We can become too attached to the original plan

Once time, effort, or money has been invested in something, changing direction can easily feel like admitting that the original decision was wrong.

But that is not necessarily true.

A hiring plan may have made complete sense six months ago, before business priorities changed.

A process may have worked perfectly when a company had 30 employees and become unnecessarily complicated at 100.

A role that seemed essential at the beginning of the year may no longer be the role the business actually needs.

The original decision can have been the right one based on the information available at the time.

What matters is being able to recognise when that information has changed.

Structure and flexibility are not opposites

There is sometimes an assumption that structured organisations are slow and agile organisations are informal.

I do not think the two are mutually exclusive.

Good structure can actually make adaptation easier.

When responsibilities are clear, priorities are understood, and people know what outcome they are trying to achieve, it becomes much easier to change the route without losing the direction.

The problems usually start when the process itself becomes more important than the outcome.

“We have always done it this way” is rarely a strong reason to continue doing something.

But the same applies at the other extreme. Changing processes every time something becomes uncomfortable is not agility either.

Sometimes the right decision is to stay with the plan long enough to see whether it works.

This matters particularly when businesses are growing

Growth creates change almost by definition.

Teams become larger. Roles evolve. New problems appear. What worked when everyone could solve something through a quick conversation may suddenly need a process.

At the same time, adding process too quickly can slow down exactly the people you are trying to support.

I have seen this repeatedly across hiring and operations.

Businesses sometimes try to solve a changing problem by adding another approval, another tool, another meeting, or another layer of process.

Sometimes that is exactly what is needed.

Sometimes the better answer is to simplify what is already there.

A recruitment process, for example, may have started with several interview stages for good reasons. But as the business changes, those same stages may start creating delays without adding much value.

Or an operational process may have been introduced to solve a real problem, but months later people are finding workarounds because the process no longer reflects how the team actually works.

The answer is not always to add more.

Sometimes it is to look at what is already there and ask whether it still serves the purpose it was designed for.

So how do you know when it is time to change?

There is no perfect formula, but there are usually a few signals worth paying attention to.

If the goal still makes sense but the way you are getting there is creating unnecessary friction, the process may need to change.

If new information has materially changed the situation, sticking to the original decision simply because it was the original decision rarely helps.

And if a team is constantly working around a process rather than through it, that is usually telling you something too.

At the same time, not every difficult period means the plan is wrong.

Some things need time to work.

Changing direction too quickly can be just as disruptive as refusing to change at all, especially when teams are already dealing with uncertainty.

For me, the useful question is not simply:

“Is this working perfectly?”

It is:

“Does this still make sense based on what we know now?”

That small shift in perspective can make a big difference.

It allows you to separate temporary discomfort from a genuine need to change direction.

The goal is not to change more. It is to adjust better.

Being agile is not about abandoning plans.

It is about having enough clarity to know what should remain fixed and what can change.

The destination may still be the same while the route looks completely different.

A good plan gives you direction. Agility gives you the freedom to adjust the route when reality changes.

And sometimes, once you stop trying to force the original plan, you find a better way of getting there.