When we talk about agility in the context of Excel, most people think about what Excel can do–the features, capabilities, and sheer power of the tool itself. But there’s another, deeper layer to this discussion that goes beyond Excel as a tool and focuses on you, the user, and your ability to adapt it to solve real-world challenges. This blog unpacks these two meanings of agility and demonstrates why understanding this distinction could lead to a massive career boost–or keep you from realizing your full potential.
Two Kinds of Agility.
1. Agility of the Tool.
The first type of agility is the one most commonly demonstrated in training videos, courses, and social media posts. It’s the “look what Excel can do” approach, where Excel is showcased much like a lump of Play-Doh or a set of Lego bricks. Imagine shaping Play-Doh into an elephant or using Lego to build a house. The agility here is defined by how versatile the material is in allowing you to create various shapes and structures.
Excel, with its grid interface, formulas, and features, has long been celebrated for this type of agility. From its early days as an “electronic spreadsheet” that evolved from A3 analysis paper with 13 columns, Excel has added features like formulas, multi-sheet links, and automation tools that enable users to perform tasks far beyond what paper spreadsheets could manage.
Modern Excel’s agility includes Power Query, dynamic arrays, X-LOOKUP, and LAMBDA functions and Excel Tables. These features allow us to reshape and manipulate data in countless ways. Social media and training platforms are flooded with tens of thousands of tutorials, watched millions of times, that showcase these capabilities–agility defined by the tool’s inherent features.
2. Agility in Application.
The second type of agility, however, shifts the focus from the tool to the user. Here, agility is about solving real-world problems and creating value, starting with a challenge or opportunity and figuring out how to meet it. This type of agility asks, “What do I need to achieve, and how can I adapt the tools I have to accomplish that?”
It’s not about what Excel can do out of the box but what *you*. Yes, that’s you. Can do with Excel to address a requirement. It’s a test of creativity, strategy, and problem-solving, often in the context of enterprise-level challenges where scalability, automation, and adaptability are critical.
A Challenge: Employee of the Week.
To illustrate this distinction, let’s consider a real-world example framed as a challenge. This challenge is adapted from a recent expert challenge by the popular MVP Oz du Soleil with Wyn Hopkins.
Imagine a global company where the chairman decides to boost morale with a new initiative: **Employee of the Week**. The process involves the following requirements:
1. Global Participation: Every employee in the organization, regardless of location, must vote for their top three choices from a list of sales department employees. 3,000 employees are located in all parts of the globe.
2. Zero Administration: Beyond HR providing a weekly list of candidates, the process must run entirely without administrative intervention.
3. Scalability: The system should extend to multiple departments in the future, with minimal adjustments.
4. Surveillance: The chairman wants private reports on:
- Employees who did not vote.
- Who voted for whom.
The challenge: Can Excel meet these requirements, including global scalability and zero administration?
The Agility Gap.
Social media content creators have demonstrated Excel’s agility through Power Query, dynamic arrays, and other features. However, when presented with this enterprise-level challenge, many experts conclude that Excel is not the right tool. They argue that such requirements demand a specialized system.
Yet, here’s the twist:
This challenge can be solved with Excel.
The Solution.
Here’s how the solution unfolds:
1. HR’s Role: HR uses a simple Excel spreadsheet to paste the weekly list of sales employees and clicks a “Put” button. HR has no further involvement in the process.
2. Employee Voting: Each employee has an identical spreadsheet. They click “Get” to download the list of candidates, select their top three choices simply by selecting the cell next to the name, and click “Put” to submit their votes. Changes can be made any time before the deadline.
3. Results and Reports:
– On Monday morning, employees can view the results by clicking “Get.”
– The chairman has a private spreadsheet with buttons to retrieve:
- – A list of employees who didn’t vote.
- – Voting records, showing who voted for whom.
4. Scalability: The system is easily modified to accommodate multiple departments or tens of thousands of employees globally without additional administrative burden.
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What Makes the Difference?
Here’s the key takeaway: This solution is not about Excel’s built-in agility as demonstrated in Power Query tutorials. It’s about your agility as a user. The tools alone–no matter how powerful–are not enough. It’s your ability to think creatively, strategically, and holistically that enables Excel to meet enterprise-level challenges.
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The Bigger Picture.
This challenge highlights a gap in how Excel’s agility is perceived and utilized:
- Social Media Agility: Showcases what Excel can do with features like Power Query. These demonstrations inspire and teach but often lack real-world applicability at scale.
- Real-World Agility: Focuses on solving specific, often complex challenges. This requires knowledge of Excel’s less celebrated capabilities for the bigger picture.
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A Cliffhanger.
The solution described here leverages Excel’s inherent capabilities in a way that is rarely highlighted in mainstream content. It’s a “small step” in terms of technical implementation but represents a giant leap in terms of what you can do with Excel in enterprise settings.
So here’s the question: What is the pivotal concept that enabled this solution? It’s a simple idea.
One small step for a spreadsheet, one massive leap for enterprise agility.
Can you identify it? Where is it discussed in social media? Can you use AI tools to find the answer?
Stay tuned as we explore this further.
This is a podcast by Hiran de Silva. Narrated by Bill.
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