The Adaptable Organization
Harnessing a networked enterprise of human resilience
The Adaptable Organization is a fundamental shift in operating and management philosophy that enables large-scale global organizations to operate with a start-up mindset and drive modern people practices that enable enterprise agility through empowered networks of teams
A journey through the adaptable organization
The Ecosystem
Historically, in stable times, organizations derived competitive advantage through progressive attempts to be more standardized, efficient and better at doing what ‘they had been doing’ for a long time. In unpredictable times, organizational survival requires the understanding that organizations exist within a broader external ecosystem, united by a specific, customer-centric purpose that is constantly evolving to remain relevant. What we have learned from clients who are embracing an ecosystem mindset:
Organizations that view themselves within an
ecosystem
compete better in today’s business
landscape.
When they leverage external communities,
partnerships
and alliances, they have greater visibility
into
the needs and behaviours of their customers.
Adaptable
Organizations are able to quickly detect shifts
in
the external environment, and flex
appropriately.
In spite of constant iteration and adaption,
a shared
purpose is the glue that anchors an
ecosystem.
It defines success for the organization through
the eyes of customers, stakeholders, and
society. In turn, employees, motivated
by meaningful work, are driven towards the
outcomes
desired by the organization.
A bold organizational purpose cascades
through the
organization using customer-focused
missions.
Teams work effectively towards their
respective
missions without impeding on each other, but
are
united by an enduring organizational purpose.Operating environments will only continue to become more complex. We help clients interpret their strategies and position in the ecosystem into customer-focused missions that energize the culture and organization. This is a departure from only using industry benchmarks or popular organizational models - it’s about intimate customization to the changing needs of customers and stakeholders.
The Organization
When change is predictable, stable organizational hierarchies can support order, clear decision-making, and functional silos to ensure maximum efficiency. However, in an era of exponential change, traditional organization models cannot keep up. What we are starting to see when it comes to structure and design of Adaptable Organizations:
Organizations must align both formal and
informal
structures to customer-focused missions.
Traditional approaches often force the
organization to work purely functionally or in
a matrix environment without understanding
the impact to human networks. Instead,
organizations
must uncover how teams naturally interact with
each
other and with the customer, and then build the
multi-disciplinary
teams, communities, reporting relationships,
and
communication channels that support these human
interactions.
Adaptable Organizations simultaneously
manage customer
adaptability and scaled efficiency.
They recognize that both are necessary, and
achieve an effective balance through the use of
functional and cross-functional,
centralized and decentralized teams. 
To enable an Adaptable Organization,
flexible governance
models are necessary. Governance
enables
adaptable work when bureaucracy is limited,
decisions
are transparent, and individuals are empowered.
A test-and-learn approach to implementation
is preferable.
The roadmap to becoming an Adaptable
Organization is a series of small, incremental
changes, rather than a big bang. Organizations
must decide how much autonomy, flexibility, and
agility
is required for their particular strategy.Static organization charts are becoming an artifact of the past. We use advanced analytics to visualize the formal (hierarchy) and informal organizations (interactions) to uncover how people actually work. New designs are emerging that embrace natural connections and organize multi-disciplinary teams to deliver value more effectively. Traditional approaches often force the organization to work purely functionally or in a matrix environment without understanding the impact to human networks.
The Team
Conventional wisdom believes that high-performing individuals deliver organizational performance. Adaptable Organizations place greater emphasis on the team and unlock individual performance through team composition and new ways of working. What effective team development looks like in an Adaptable Organization:
The understanding that individual
performance is
intrinsically linked to team composition.
Only when the diverse perspectives, unique
skillsets, and broad experiences of individuals
are brought together do individuals
truly thrive.
A clear focus that unites the team to the
organization’s
purpose.
Each team has its own mission or focus
around
which it can direct its efforts and motivate
its
members; however, all of the teams within an
organization
are ultimately aligned to its purpose.
Iterative and empowered execution by teams.
Teams
must adopt an agile, “fail fast” mentality
where
frequent touchpoints, iteration reviews, and
cross-team
planning enable them to respond swiftly to
fluctuating
customer demands. This is made possible only
when
decision-making rights are transparent, and
teams
are given flexibility and autonomy.
A safe place for collaboration and connected
ways
of working. This is achieved through
flexible
communication, connecting on a human level, and
uniting
under the broader organization’s mission. True
collaboration
can unlock latent productivity and inclusion,
in
order to realize greater agility.We act as coaches for our clients and help them learn how to place greater emphasis on teams and unlock individual performance through team diversity, environment, and new ways of working using agile approaches. In understanding that agile methodology is not just for technology or product functions, we help teams accelerate on execution and become more flexible. We believe that high performing teams enabled to achieve organizational missions deliver more value than individuals focused on individual goals.
The Leader
As organizations pivot and adapt to shifting contexts, the adaptability of leaders becomes essential. Leaders must be able to energize, empower, and connect people across the ecosystem and lead any team in any context. Leadership in the Adaptable Organization is a departure from the traditional, role-based view of leadership:
Leaders exist at all levels of the
organization.
Leaders are now multi-function and
multi-context, across all disciplines. More so
than traditional organizations, Adaptable
Organizations require a strong pipeline of
leadership;
therefore, candidates must be identified and
leadership
skills developed at every level.
Leaders are inclusive orchestrators, not
heroes.
They lead not because of position, tenure, or
expertise, but because of their vision and
ability to connect individuals across
the organization. In an Adaptable Organization,
three
paramount leadership capabilities that emerge
are
the ability to energize, empower, and connect.
These
capabilities points to raw leadership potential
instead
of technical expertise.
Leaders must embrace vulnerability and
create psychological
safety.
In order to enable a culture of failing
fast
and taking risks, it is integral that leaders
build
a safe space where ideas can be shared and
diversity
of thought thrives. They do so through
practicing
and encouraging vulnerability, authenticity,
and
raw leadership.
Complexity and ambiguity demand versatility.
Leaders in the Adaptable Organization must
constantly navigate change and uncertainty. In
order to lead effectively, they
must empower everyone in the organization,
particularly
those closest to the customer, to make
decisions
and take ownership. The versatile leader can
lead
effectively in any context, inside or outside
of
their traditional areas of expertise. Identifying, developing, and retaining strong leadership is integral to any organization’s success, and the bar for leadership effectiveness is constantly being raised. We help our clients build effective leadership pipelines and programs that meet their strategic needs and which ensure they can navigate into the long-term.
The Individual
The traditional view of the employee assumes people inherently resist change and talent programs provide stability. In Adaptable Organizations, resiliency and accepting change becomes part of the organization's DNA and talent programs exist to enable that resilience. How an individual is woven into the ecosystem of an Adaptable Organization:
Individuals must understand that adaptable
is not
something you do, it is something you
become.
Organizations must coach their people to
adopt
mindsets of growth, imagination, diversity, and
experimentation.
Only when such a mindset is adopted at the
individual
level, will teams and organizations be able to
execute
on adaptable work.
The focus is on people, not on job titles.
Traditional
role-based job descriptions, recruitment
practices,
and orientation programs are no longer
relevant.
Instead, talent management recognizes that
roles
are fluid and skillsets are diverse.
Recruitment
and onboarding programs center around the
purpose,
culture, and customers of the organization.
Growth, learning, and performance management
take
place on an ongoing basis. In order to
reflect
a rapidly-evolving external environment,
learning
and performance management can no longer be
static,
infrequent, and formal. Peer reviews and career
discussions
are frequent, agile touchpoints. Learning is
continuous,
embedded into day-to-day work, and changes
based
on the needs of the individual.
Flexibility is a key feature of an
individual’s career
development.
As opposed to the traditional view of
climbing
the hierarchal ladder in a fixed role,
organizations
recognize that career paths are becoming
increasingly
complex, cross-functional, and latticed. They
support
their talent through horizontal job rotations,
fluid
work roles, and the activation of
organizational
networks.
Helping people embrace change and continuous learning is difficult. To truly be adaptable, we believe that organizations need to enable individual resilience through flexible talent programs. We help clients design and adopt leading edge talent approaches to elevate a shifting and diverse workforce that includes both humans and machines.
In the new world of work, stability gives way to adaptability.
How adaptable is your organization today?
What have others learned on the adaptable journey?
Retailers are facing significant demands from digital revolutions and consumer preferences. Many organizations are reimagining their physical store ecosystem to increased autonomy for store and local customer support. Our clients are exploring adaptability to break down silos between core commercial functions (e.g., merchandising, marketing, e-commerce, store development). Whether in the pursuit of ‘omni-channel’ or simply removing the barriers between functions that serve customers, retailors are experimenting with multi-disciplinary “mission-based teams”, that are enabled to make decisions and work agile. Some of these teams are market facing, but others are also shared services to internal customers.
Financial services need to shift from product to customer focus, embrace fintech and prioritize technology investments to remain competitive. To increase time to market and remove bureaucracy banks are making the radical shift to implement cross functional, customer obsessed teams and agile ways of working and focused on serving customers through life stages (e.g, help me save for my future, help me manage my lending accounts) instead of through their own products and channel structures. Early, and well publicized, experimentation within the banks in this space became a model for other industries to pursue networks of teams, new structures and ways of work. With the maturity and strength of agile capabilities within banking and insurance, financial services will continue to be a hotbed of experimentation around AO as technology, product and business teams continue to merge.
Not-for-profit organizations are also seeing the benefits of becoming more adaptable. These organization often have a strong social purpose that is an essential building block to a culture of resilience, failing fast and innovating through autonomous networks of teams. Our not-for-profit clients are leading the way in driving true “systems thinking” which is essential when driving for adaptability. Getting a systemic outcome for children, healthcare or education requires many disciplines to work together. Adaptable teams are essential to breaking down the silos needed to drive complete solutions, and the smaller scale of many not-for-profits allows for greater experimentation and rapid decision making.
To remain competitive in an evolving market, manufacturers need to be more customer obsessed than ever before. These organizations are shifting away from command and control process leaders to networks of teams organized around actual customers, essentially established small scale manufacturers within the organization with greater transparency for the customers and teams. Our manufacturing clients are challenging the traditional hand-offs (and therefore waterfall production techniques) between sales, design, engineering, production and shop-floor teams and organizing around categories and b2b accounts. These teams are making decisions live, working agile and have direct access to the people they need to interact with on a daily basis. Time to market, customer intimacy and scaling benefits are being observed as a result.
The pace of business and technology disruption and changing citizen expectations, requires governments to continuously respond with new programs and policies by negotiating across traditional ministerial and departmental silos. Inspired by adaptable organizations, some governments are exploring a truly people-centric approach by investigating reorganizing around citizen focused missions that look to realign the complex negotiations that must occur across departments to increase collaboration. Innovative talent models are also being tested to move people quickly to shifts in public policy and citizen opinion.
Even supermarket chains are finding new ways to turn their customers into genuine fans. To accomplish this every unit in the organizations are focusing on contributing to continuously optimizing the customer shopping experience through an increasing variety of online platforms as well as its mortar and brick stores. Teams are redesigned for cross-functional collaboration between IT and the business, in order to address rapidly changing customer needs faster. Metrics have been defined to assess the improvements in continuous customer value delivery and to be able to continuously steer on better results.