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- WeAreHuman@Work | #021 | You Can’t Move Fast If People Don’t Know Where They Stand
WeAreHuman@Work | #021 | You Can’t Move Fast If People Don’t Know Where They Stand
WeAreHuman@Work is a newsletter dedicated to fostering a more sustainable world of work.
Tanguy Dulac
April 20, 2025
THIS WEEK'S CONTENT
Deloitte’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report is here—one of my favourite annual reads.
Over the next eight weeks, I’ll break down each trend into actionable insights for leaders navigating uncertainty and transformation.
This week: Trend #1: Stagility — Creating Stability for Workers for Organisations to Move at Speed.
Below is the executive summary and a few hand-picked resources to help you go deeper.
🔍 ZOOM IN
Stagility: Creating Stability for Workers for Organisations to Move at Speed | Trend #1 from 2025 Global Human Capital Trends by Deloitte (2025)
You can’t ask people to move fast if they don’t know where they stand.
This article introduces “stagility”—the strategic balance between stability and agility—as a defining capability for modern organisations. Workers are overwhelmed by change, while leaders are accelerating transformation. Deloitte reframes the conversation: agility is only sustainable when rooted in new anchors of stability. Drawing on global data and case studies, the authors present a roadmap for designing work, organisations, and careers that are both adaptive and grounded—helping organisations move faster by assisting people to feel safer.
📊 DID YOU KNOW?
The average worker now faces 10 enterprise-wide changes a year, up from just 2 in 2016, and 49% are worried the pace of change will leave them behind.
👀 DID YOU SEE?
The figure below offers a striking visual synthesis of the shift required to achieve stagility. It maps foundational transitions—from rigid job descriptions to fluid skill-based pathways, from functional teams to AI-enabled networks, and from fixed offices to flexible work environments. These new anchors redefine how work is organised, who does it, and how workers connect and grow—helping organisations balance agility and stability in a world of constant change.
✨ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In their article, Shannon Poynton, Sue Cantrell, Nic Scoble-Williams, David Mallon, and Gaurav Lahiri explore a powerful tension: the ground beneath workers erodes as work accelerates.
Drawing on Deloitte’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends data, the authors argue that agility without stability leads to burnout and mistrust. Yet only 39% of organisations actively address this challenge, despite 72% acknowledging its importance. The proposed solution is “stagility”—a leadership capability that provides employees with new anchors across three domains: the work itself, the organisation, and the individual worker.
Practical examples—from Haier’s microenterprise model to Standard Chartered’s AI-driven skills passports—show how companies can foster agility through purpose, connection, and flexible work design. Gina Yue of IHG says, “We need to provide foundational stability and a culture of care… in a way that motivates [workers] to choose us.”
“This is not about the choice of stability or agility, but rather about strengthening and enabling both.” — Deloitte
🔍 WHY IT MATTERS
↳ Change is accelerating beyond the human pace. Workers face an overwhelming volume of organisational, cultural, and technological transformations. Without firm ground, people can’t keep up.
↳ Legacy models are losing their relevance. Traditional job descriptions, linear careers, and hierarchical teams are no longer fit for purpose—yet many systems still depend on them.
↳ Misalignment is growing between leaders and workers. While 85% of executives demand more agility, 75% of workers seek more excellent stability—putting engagement, trust, and performance at risk.
↳ Stability is now a leadership capability. Grounding people in purpose, skills, and flexible systems is not a soft initiative—it’s essential to speed, innovation, and resilience.
↳ Human sustainability drives business sustainability. Organisations investing in people’s long-term adaptability outperform innovation, retention, and responsiveness to change.
💡 KEY INSIGHTS
↳ Three sources of instability require new anchors. Instability in work (fluid tasks, AI disruption), in the organisation (structural rigidity), and in the worker (identity and career pathways) all call for redesigned anchors that reconnect people to purpose and outcomes.
↳ Technology must empower humans, not replace them. At Mercedes-Benz, a GenAI platform gives workers real-time insights in plain language, helping them make better decisions—turning data into capability.
↳ Skills, not roles, drive modern value creation. Zoho and NAB remove rigid job structures and promote flexible contribution, enabling workers to grow through experience rather than hierarchy.
↳ Purposeful structures unlock speed and coherence. Haier’s “zero distance” model replaces fixed hierarchies with 4,000+ microenterprises—small teams accountable for clear outcomes.
↳ Ecosystems extend capability and connection. Job swaps, public-private talent exchanges, and workforce crowdsourcing (as seen at IHG) show how organisations can remain agile while preserving cultural grounding.
🚀 ACTIONS FOR LEADERS
↳ Redesign roles and work around outcomes. Move from static job descriptions to fluid, purpose-aligned teams. Clarify expected results—not just responsibilities—to give workers meaning and direction.
↳ Use AI to build capability, not just efficiency. Democratise access to insights. Ensure technology platforms help people grow in skill, autonomy, and contribution—not just complete tasks faster.
↳ Build internal mobility through skills-first systems. Create “skills passports” and project-based roles to help workers explore, evolve, and stay—without jumping companies to grow.
↳ Rethink structures to invite participation. Explore ecosystem models where workers, partners, and AI collaborate seamlessly. Design for co-creation, not control.
↳ Anchor culture in care and coherence. Invest in foundational practices—like inclusive leadership, manager support, and clear feedback loops—to maintain connection amid change.
💬 QUESTION FOR THE BOARDROOM
Is our organisation creating the clarity, structure, and trust your people need to match your pace of change?
🔗 CONCLUSION
Stagility reframes the debate: agility and stability aren’t competing values—they’re co-dependent. As Deloitte’s research reveals, organisations that thrive in disruption intentionally ground workers in clarity, connection, and capability. This means letting go of outdated structures and investing in new anchors rooted in human potential, not organisational tradition.
The shift isn’t easy. It demands leaders who see beyond short-term transformation cycles and long-term workforce sustainability. But the reward is profound: an organisation that can continuously reinvent itself—because its people feel stable enough to move and valued enough to stay.
🎯 KEY TAKEAWAY
Organisations must anchor their agility in human stability to move fast and sustainably.
🎧 TUNE IN
If this trend had an anthem, U2 already wrote it.
🎧 “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for…”
Because despite all the change, many people are still searching.
For clarity.
For stability.
For something that feels like home at work.
The balance between agility and stability.
You can’t move fast if people don’t know where they stand.
It’s not about slowing down.
It’s about creating anchors—purpose, identity, growth—so people can move and stay grounded.
U2 captured the yearning.
Now it’s time for leaders to respond.
👉 What are you doing to help your people feel steady in the storm?
Inspired by “Stagility: Creating Stability for Workers for Organisations to Move at Speed” – Deloitte, 2025.
💭 REFLECT
People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.