---
id: "concept-strategic-agility"
type: "concept"
source_timestamps: ["§ Strategic agility"]
tags: ["strategy", "adaptability"]
related: ["framework-shape-index", "claim-strategic-agility-most-important", "action-hire-for-uncoachable"]
definition: "The leadership capability to prioritize options over rigid plans, pivot when necessary, and focus on business value rather than novelty."
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/what-companies-with-successful-ai-pilots-do-differently"
source_title: "What Companies with Successful AI Pilots Do Differently"
sources: ["execution"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-execution"
originDay: 8
articleStem: "hbr-foci-60-successful-ai-pilots"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/what-companies-with-successful-ai-pilots-do-differently"
sourceTitle: "What Companies with Successful AI Pilots Do Differently"
---
# Strategic Agility (SHAPE)

## Strategic Agility — the 'S' in [[framework-shape-index|SHAPE]]

The ability of leaders to plan for the long term while remaining willing to pivot in the short term.

**Definition:** The leadership capability to prioritize options over rigid plans, pivot when necessary, and focus on business value rather than novelty.

### What high performers do
- Prioritize **options over rigid plans**
- **Proactively scan for disruption**
- Focus on **business value over novelty**
- **Avoid sunk-cost traps**
- **Balance timing with speed**

### What low performers do
- Make **linear plans that ignore uncertainty**
- **Defend work based on prior investments** (sunk-cost reasoning)
- **Select tools without connecting them to broader goals**

### Importance and coachability
Survey respondents ranked strategic agility as the **most important** of the five SHAPE dimensions (see [[claim-strategic-agility-most-important]]). It is also viewed as one of the **least coachable** dimensions, which is why the authors recommend [[action-hire-for-uncoachable|hiring externally for it]] rather than relying on internal development.

### Enrichment context
Adjacent AI-ROI literature (MIT, Forbes, CloudFactory) echoes the importance of a robust strategy that aligns divisions and individuals, defining outcome metrics before build and avoiding sunk-cost pilots — though the specific 65%-rank-it-first-or-second statistic is proprietary to the ghSMART survey.