|
 Organization
Evolution.
A new kid in the management block? No way. Look around and
you will see many organizations, which have evolved to deal
with change. In fact, most organizations, which you see surviving
after the apocalyptical recession, have in all probability
embraced evolution in some way or the other. Also, if you
search deeply into some of the seemingly immortal organizations
like GE, Wal-Mart and IBM you may be able to detect a certain
life force of evolution embedded in the very essence of their
long life-expectancy. Yes, one of the proofs of the fact the
organizations evolve is their ability to survive despite changing
environments and habitats. Organizations are not discreetly
engineered economic machines operating in stable predictable
environments. Like any other species in existence, organizations
also are living organisms. They are adaptive systems - inter-related
to and interdependent and interacting with other living and
adaptive systems and the ever-changing living habitat. They dont mange change but respond to it by evolving.
Key to evolvability™ of an organization is:
- A purpose for existence- the single mostfundamental
and immutable cause for which the organization exists. Without
a purpose, the organization does not have a right to exist
in a given environment
- An organizational competency of learnability
the ability to continuously learn and unlearn by subjecting
the system to the influences of disruptive changes at
will, by choice - and applying the knowledge of what works
to adapt to new habitats
Some of the symptoms of an effectively evolving organization
are:
- Genuine belief of the executive management in organization
evolution and commitment to support the same
- Sensitivity to habitat and willing to let go habits (read
winning strategies)
- A positive feedback loop to reinforce early success by
organization-wide learning of what's working and what's
not.
- Employees driven by a cause to over come fear of change
rather than being forced to overcome through short-term
motivation.
- Continuous empowerment of employees as memetic agents
for organization evolution through
- Alignment of their individual purpose / vision to
the organizational essence
- Continuous development of competencies essential for
evolution.
- Not obsessed with becoming for survival but believing
in its being
- Having permeable boundaries for knowledge osmosis
- Encouraging a process of natural selection for creating
and living interdependent relationships
- Relying more on business instincts than on proven best-practices
- Believing in change as systemic neutralizer
Created by
Indraneel Mukerjee,
Founder & CEO
iProdigy.
|
|
