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Instantly Practical and Actionable

Over the past decade, Jorgen Hesselberg has led numerous noteworthy agile transformations of some of the world’s most respected organizations. In this comprehensive guide to unlocking agility at the enterprise level, he looks at the history, philosophy, and practice of business agility.

Readers will learn the methods to begin an effective change effort, and the pitfalls to avoid through the journey. The book culminates with a strategic roadmap: how to create meaningful change and support it over the long term.

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How the Book is Organized

Why is business agility more important today than ever? Where does agile come from and is it purely a software thing?

The Case for Agile
– the "Why"

What are the environments where agile ways of working thrive - and what are the contexts where plan-driven approaches are more appropriate? What does it mean to optimize for flow and what are the implications from an organizational perspective? Why is business agility more important today than ever? Where does agile come from and is it purely a software thing?

Organizational Implications
– the "What"

What are the dimensions we need to think about in terms of changing our organization? What are the changes we need to make regarding Technology, Organizational Design, People, Leadership and Culture? How can we ensure we align our operational strategy with our business strategy – and not the other way around?

Embrace Change, Execute with Purpose
– the "How"

How can an organization change in a sustainable manner to a more agile way of working? How can we implement a "engine of change" to help sustain momentum beyond the honeymoon period and truly change an enterprise? What does a high-level strategic roadmap look like – and what are the very real pitfalls to avoid on the journey?

What are Change Leaders saying about Unlocking Agility?


So much Agile goodness jam-packed into one book! Starting with the origins of modern management, and ending with a vision for organizations of the future, Jorgen has pulled together every conceivable pattern, framework, and model, while also incorporating important topics like age, gender, & diversity. Complete with Q&A, and Further Reading suggestions, this book is a perfect reference guide to anyone leading an organization through transformative change, on their journey to Business Agility.

Jason Kline
Agile Practice Leader, Accenture"


Jorgen has written a gem of a book - in his conversational, easy-to-read style, he tackles complex subjects from agile organization design, to agile teams, to agile workspaces. If you are looking for a thoughtful discussion on what it takes to transform your organization into an agile one, this book should be required reading.

Noopur Davis
SVP, Chief Product and Information Security Officer, Comcast






What a joy to read this book! From lean experimentation to agile collaboration, from business modeling to organization design, from anecdotes and stories to scaling models and transformational roadmaps, Jorgen craftily weaves it all together in this compelling book. If you were wondering where to start your agile transformation, you can start right here.

Jurgen Appelo
author of Management 3.0 and Managing for Happiness





When recommending books on agile, I have a tough time suggesting the same book for agile nerds AND the interested-but-not-immersed. Unlocking Agility fits the bill, however. The book is pragmatic and accessible, while encouraging an agile approach to enterprise agility itself. I found the closing chapters on Agile Working Groups, change strategy/roadmaps, and organizational improvement backlogs to be particularly valuable. I no doubt will be referring to them frequently.

John Cutler
Product Development Coach, Writer

Bring the transformative power of Unlocking Agility to your Organization!

Jorgen Hesselberg, his partner Almir Drugovic and a group of experienced, proven transformation thought leaders are available to conduct custom workshops, tailored to the unique context of your company.

Our workshops include a rather unique guarantee: if you take action on the impediments we identify as part of the workshop and you don’t achieve at least a 50% improvement from your current state within a stated period of time, the workshop is on us. Plain and simple.

To start the conversation and learn more, please fill out the following form and we’ll be back to you so we can have an introductory discussion.