Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations)
We’ve all been there: wading our way through yet another crummy workday, in a job that we are merely tolerating, in an organization that just seems to be lagging and slowly dying on the vine. Despite the best of intentions, leaders often inadvertently create lackluster workplace environments that are stagnant and fail to enculturate vision, mission, capacity and learning to help their teams not only survive but thrive.
I once worked in such an organization, in a job that was, shall we say, lousy. The company was the epitome of stale bureaucracy, and the prominent leadership style was authoritative. My coworkers and I were constantly micromanaged, there was little to no trust between management and the employees and work each day was a slog. We got stuff done, but only just. Innovation and adapting to the needs of the customer weren’t even an afterthought of leadership, as far as I could tell, or at least such a mindset didn’t manifest itself in the way the organization was led or how the work was designed and carried out.
This may seem like a bit of a straw man, but as I have consulted with organizations and teams over the past two decades, I have seen similar scenarios play out again and again. The truth is, despite what are usually good intentions, many (if not most) leaders and organizations aren’t well equipped to be adaptive in the face of an ever-shifting business landscape.
A Brief History Of Organizational Design
Organizational design is a topic examined by scholars and organizational leaders for decades. Academic research dating all the way back to the 1950s has specifically explored this topic, in an effort to better understand how to design effective and efficient organizations and the work that they perform, but efforts in organizational and work design go back even further, to the early days of the Industrial Revolution, Taylorism and Fordism and the development of mechanized work and the assembly line.
However, even as early as the 1980s, researchers were recognizing the limitations of Taylorism and Fordism. In recent decades, there has been a significant shift from a mechanistic approach to work and organizations to adaptive, people-centered organizations. Scholars and practitioners alike recognize that we are now firmly enmeshed in the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), characterized by ongoing digital transformation and disruption, or in other words, “the intelligent networking of machines and processes for industry with the help of information and communication technology.” We are experiencing greater and greater levels of automation driven by artificial intelligence (AI), deep machine learning and advanced robotics, and the name of the game is consumer personalization and customization.
The Development Of Adaptive Organizational Design
While it is important to note that organizations are indeed complex systems, the context of Industry 4.0 requires a different set of leadership competencies and capabilities, with much more agile and adaptive organizations. As one thought leader recently argued, “Robust adaptability has still not fully made it to the way we design and manage organizations—even though the organization’s needs and focus are constantly changing.” As the pace of change and disruption continues to increase, are we creating agile and adaptive teams that can not only respond to the constant change but also proactively prepare for and anticipate (at least to some extent) the shifts that will continue to put a strain on our people and our business?
Furthermore, it has been argued (in this adaptive organization design manifesto) that “This era of sharp evolution for human society requires and allows for organizations that are able to cope with increasing amounts of unrelenting change, co-learning with their context and evolving accordingly and continuously.” The writer further argues that as leaders we must learn to move away from a focus on structures and rules (the bread and butter of bureaucratic organizations), rather prioritizing organizational dynamics and guiding principles that allow for rapid iteration, experimentation, continual learning and adaptability.
Moving Toward Vibrant Work Design
An adaptive organization will not only be in a stronger position to rapidly respond to an ever-shifting internal and external environment, but leaders with an adaptive organizational design mindset and skill set will be better prepared to help their people grow and evolve in their roles to meet the shifting demands of the market. Leaders need to design work that is meaningful and purpose-driven and provides employees with the opportunity to learn and grow a little every day. Additionally, flexible work design can lead to a more vibrant job design that is better situated to more rapidly adapt to both the needs of the organization and the employee.
Organizational Learning To Survive And Thrive
In addition to ensuring meaningful job design and a flexible workplace design that allows for the evolution of the roles and responsibilities of a given job, leaders need to create and sustain a culture of continual organizational learning if they hope to have an adaptive organization ready to respond the ever-changing demands in the shifting world of work. In a hypercompetitive labor market that is already experiencing severe skills gaps, leaders don’t have the luxury of just hiring new talent with evolving specialized technical competencies and capabilities; they need to develop effective strategies to reskill and upskill their people to meet both present and future organizational and market demands.
Conclusion
Most of us want to work for and lead dynamic organizations and teams that are positioned to creatively and sustainably add value to the market. In order to stay relevant amid a rapidly changing world, leaders must rethink the how and why behind the designs of their organizations and the work they and their teams perform. Focusing on adaptive organizational design and moving toward more flexible and dynamic work design will help you and your people to create a vibrant environment and culture of organizational learning and growth that will allow you to meet the ever-changing demands of the market, better respond to disruption and not only survive but thrive in the future of work.
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