The 'Adaptive' organisation
A lot is being said & pondered over the nature of the environment in which enterprises operate. The current environment is considered to be 'chaotic'. The 'Alignment' of the enterprise with the customer is considered to be the most important mantra for success.
I wonder what does alignment mean in the context where the environment is chaotic & the customer hence is not static. In my opinion organisations need 'dynamic alignment'. Organisations which are able to know the ingredients of what makes up for alignment & continuously gauge the shifts in the environment to keep themselves abreast with the latest parameters of alignment would be successful. Dynamic alignment needs 'Adaptive Organisations'.
Adaptive organisations is a function of the People. It's your workforce. They way it is recruited, developed, appreciated or rejected. Encouraged to take up new tasks. How is your workforce respected, trusted & celebrated.I think if some organisation recruits people for their attitude or character & excellent team work it is likely to create far more adaptability as compared to hoards of others.
It is such a misdirected initiative to create adaptive organisations through well crafted policies, procedures & process, let alone the constraints of compliance. It's 'People'. It's the 'Living Organisation'. To create a adaptive organisation is so uncomplicated. We mess it up.
I would see a new world of work where the people of the organisation are guaranteed that failures, useful failures, are celebrated, cheered rather than the fear of failure constraining workforce to give a shot to anything new. Adaptive organisations would make 'mentoring' the mandatory role for each person.
Adaptive organisation are a function of 'People'. It's only your workforce not otherwise.
Sir, nice to read this. A different look out towards organisation's behavior to adapt to changes. But I've a question. Are companies ready to accept failures even creative ones when everything is measured in terms of money? I guess it will take considerable amount of type to get into that mode of business for companies, at least in India. But truly a different thought put up here. Really appreciated!!
ReplyDeleteHi Amit, We have to bear in mind that the extension of past into future will be a sure shot way to 'disappearance'. So the new world of work will also have new ways of working.
ReplyDeleteHello Pinak, I think a very good thought has been put up.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment that organizations need to recruit people for their attitude, character & ability to work in a team as well as take risks. As a set of skills it would mean - adaptability, abiliy to think & quickly understand new challenges
Resources with such abilities (in large numbers) are not available easily. Our education system also needs to promote individual thinking, risk taking, coach to work in teams & respect different cultures.
Yes, Mandar. The Supply side constraint is very high. Some times i think it also has to do with the culture in which we are brought up. 20th Century was US of A because the society permitted 'Failures' as part of the evolution. In India, i guess failure is a spot which remains as stigma for a long time!
ReplyDeleteInteresting stuff. "Adaptive" is definitely the way to go.
ReplyDeleteIt may be a modern day fad to run down on policies and procedures. According to me, it may be good understand the need for a policy at the first place and in light of the dynamic environment, keep it flexible and easy. Without a sound policy (written down or otherwise), there will not be direction.
For example, if the policy is to develop a credible second vendor for all critical materials, it may be very costly and meaningless for those materials where only one vendor exists in the world. But if such a policy does not exist, then 80% of the supply base may become risky. This is since things always tend to deteriorate in life from their current level and a good policy and its meaningful monitoring helps in checking this deterioration.
My two pence.