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6 Secrets Of Organizations That Successfully Adapt To Change

This article is more than 8 years old.

In today's business environment, the gap between relevance and obsolescence has the potential to grow wider every day. If companies are to stay relevant then they must adapt to change, but they must do so before change beckons the call.

To stay relevant means to be connected--internally with employees, externally with customers and investors, and globally with emerging trends and markets; to anticipate new direction and foresee the writing on the wall that demands innovation.

Organizations that failed to adapt emerging threats did so because they lacked the skill and will to do so. Yes, change can be uncomfortable, but, in the words of General (Ret.) Eric Shinseki, " If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

Conversely, companies that successfully adapt become less dense and have fewer overlooked decision factors (source). Here are six more ways companies successfully adapt to change:

1. They welcome failure.

There’s a difference between accepting failure and welcoming it. To accept failure is to forego progress, to give up, to quit. To welcome failure, however, is to acknowledge the temporary state that exists and see the interim as a stepping-stone toward greater learning. Many organizations claim to welcome failure as a part of their culture but the incentives in place indicate otherwise. Here’s a quick checklist to see if failure is welcomed in your culture:

  • Are new ideas accepted?
  • Does the concept of growth or change energize people?
  • Are there incentives for testing new products or services?

2. They add feedback loops. 

Without consistent communication to ensure you’re on the right trajectory, the (mis)perception of time and space can create the illusion of security. Take, for instance, the pharmaceutical industry. Since it takes an average of 12 years to move a drug from discovery and testing to market and distribution, a drug company’s performance today has little to do with its successes from yesterday. However, it’s easier for employees and investors to attribute the company’s high performance to their strategies and leadership. It’s not that lead times are too long, in this case, but rather there aren’t enough touch points along the way to ensure directional correctness.

3. They ingrain learning. 

As an executive coach, I’ve heard from many clients the challenges posed by the speed of change and globalization. They want to get ahead of the competition and believe that working harder and faster is the way to go. I disagree. Don’t get me wrong, working effectively and efficiently are important, but if you’re selling apples in a market geared towards oranges, it doesn’t matter how effective or how fast you’re selling because nobody wants to buy. This is why working smarter is so important. The only way organizations get smarter is by reflecting on both failures and successes and sharing the insights with employees. This way, front line employees have the context of senior leaders, thus enabling their ability to make decisions.

4. They’re process focused.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the pressure of winning and the consequences of losing. Organizations that focus on the process of achieving their goal don’t let the goal define them; they define their goal by the process they employ.

5. They promote accountability. 

It’s easy to attribute success to hard work and failure to bad luck, but adaptable organizations foster a culture of accountability. They know that when employees don’t trust each other to fulfill their work tasks, then morale takes a nose dive and the blame game to begin. Additionally, accountability is built with a systems perspective because employees understand how the decisions they make impact not only their business unit but others, as well.

6. They downplay power. 

Ego abounds in the business environment. The worst part is, ego is a completely valueless source of decision-making. To know that results could be made and progress could be achieved but they’re not simply because of one individual’s need to feel important is a personal (and organizational) handicap. Adaptable organizations curtail this by outlining decision-making space—the boundaries that define one’s role, and responsibilities for that role—and ensuring that leaders make decisions that only they can affect. Hint: If you made a decision that somebody else one or two levels down from you could’ve made, ask yourself, is that optimal?

How does your company stay relevant?

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