The potential of a soft, adaptable organisation
Despite our desires for the world to just stop for a moment so we can catch a breath, there is nothing rigid about the world we live in.
Organisations of all shapes and sizes know this to be true. While systems, structures and process can give off the feeling of consistency and control, the reality is the swirling and shifting environments we operate in challenge that.
In practical terms, when we approach the need to change with a solution that feels comforting in its completeness, we risk thinking of an organisation as an inflexible and hardened structure that has a crack or break that simply needs repaired.
With things being ‘fixed’, we move on. Yes, we talk about continuous improvement, we say we will keep coming back and learning and changing. Mostly we’re just waiting for the major cracks to show again to force another reactive repair job.
What if we thought of an organisation as being soft, yielding and pliable? Not so soft that it loses shape or disperses, just malleable or porous enough to adjust? An adaptable entity that can be responsive to the environment of the day, that can shift itself without cracking and breaking?
Can you imagine that?
Let’s hold these two types of organisational form in our minds and then think about how either might respond to a need to change. Each would take that change on at different speeds and in different ways. When we think about an organisation as a tangible entity that is soft and adaptable, it creates a different paradigm for change.
the benefits of soft adaptability
Soft adaptability is deliberate and purposeful in its creation. We would see these types of organisational elements in place:
CONDITIONS
Constraining or enabling contexts, attitudes, perceptions and factors.
Contextual awareness - Constant understanding of external environment and internal dynamics, staying attuned over reactive
Customer & community needs - In tune with the people and communities being served
Boundaries & constraints - Early strategic response to things like budget limits, regulations and policy shifts over reactive compliance
CHARACTERISTICS
Qualities, traits and behaviours to shape and guide actions.
Flexibility - Being able to bend without breaking
Permeability - Open to the new, inviting and expecting different inputs and changes
Resilience - Able to recover and adjust to most disruptions
Responsiveness - Reading signals and shifting to adjust
CAPABILITIES
Skills, competencies and practices to respond effectively.
Research & sense-making - Scanning, feedback, data interpretation and storytelling to enable collective sensing
Collaborative & cross-functional problem solving - Leveraging diverse perspectives, collective intelligence and cross-boundary engagement
Prototyping & learning - Capacity to rapidly test ideas and decisions
Adaptive planning - Expecting and allowing for adjustment, embracing change and shift
CULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Promoting openness, flexibility, connection and continuous learning.
Reflection sessions - Retrospectives to learn and iterate
Distributed decision-making support - Supporting individuals and teams to make decisions in-place based on local conditions
Celebrating adaptions - Identifying, celebrating and rewarding proactive responses to challenge and change
OPERATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Prioritising flexibility, decentralisation and responsiveness.
Flexible teaming - Cross-functional teams that can form and disband with ease
Feedback loops - Integrated loops to adjust practices in real-time
Adaptive workflows - Enough structure for consistency, enough space for creativity
Flexible budgeting & financing - Making cross-functional efforts easy to fund
TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Staying effective, connected and data-informed.
Integrated collaboration tools - Asynchronous communication, real-time document collaboration and virtual workspaces
Data & analytics systems - Integrated data across functions and departments, with real-time dashboards to assess key signals
Scalable & adaptable architecture - Allowing systems to be shifted, adapted, connected and extended
Responsive knowledge management - Connecting people to information quickly, contextually aware and dynamically
Can you imagine?
Adaptability is possible only with the right organisational elements in place. Every transformation an organisation takes on is an opportunity to get more of them in place. This is the gift to the organisation in the future, preparing it today to shape a better tomorrow.
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Let's create new ways of understanding and orchestrating organisations.
Let's celebrate the stories of orchestrators finding success and impact in their organisations.
Let's understand the organisational elements needed to get to the impacts we aspire for.
Let's believe that organisations can be a positive force for a better tomorrow.
