The Adaptive Organization and Adapting and You according to Tim Harford
Tim identifies that the world is dynamic, it is a world that will always lay down challenges for individuals and organizations as well. In his work, change should not be approached by rigidity, it should be approached with adapting mechanism. Challenges that come along with change do not have any solution that is already made or seeking advice from experts. The world is currently profoundly complex and it is massively unpredictable as well. Therefore, instead of resisting change, the approach should be to improvise rather than plan, working from the bottom towards the top but not vice versa and also taking baby steps to head forward rather than great leaps to the same direction.
Tim is quick to demonstrate that both organizations and individuals will be faced with situations that they have minimal or absolutely no idea on how they should be approached or operated. An example being technology. In such a case therefore, an individual has to experiment. It does mean that upon the experiment one will succeed immediately, no. There are high chances that one will fail in an experiment or the first attempt. He then explains that failing in a trial is a process towards success. It is at these moment that he sheds light that feedback in an organization and for personal life is critical in seeking success. Upon receiving feedback which may be negative, Harford acknowledges that the barriers of denial, self-destructive behavior and remembering past mistakes and fearing that they may occur are big barriers to success in adapting to change. He makes it clear that even though many experiments end up with failure, the process to correct the mistakes in the experiment is more liberating even though at the time of failure we may feel that there is possibly no solution.
Goal Attainment Process and Terminology Identified by Rogo and His Team According to Dr. Eliyahu Moshe Goldraft
Alex Rogo is in a situation in which the business he runs is underperforming. In the same accord, his relationship with his wife is shaky as the lady is having trouble to adapt from city life. Rogo is then given an ultimatum that he must beat by his boss Mr. Peach. At this moment, it is critical to note that there is a timeframe for which an organizational goal should be met and the success of Rogo as the manager will be judged. In the senior meetings that Rogo attends, he understands that the organization might collapse if appropriate measures are not taken. At this point, we can recognize that he is under pressure not forgetting that his wife. With such, Rogo seeks information from an informed person, Jonah, who from this point on helps Rogo with critical advice.
Together with his team, Rogo is able to beat even the targets laid by Mr. Peach through identifying the constraint they face, they then as a team consult and determine on strategies to exploit the constraint, there is subordination, elevating the system constraints and lastly doing the process over and over again to ensure that processes towards profit are achieved. It is an ongoing process that targets maximum improvement. Success by Rogo and his team was through transforming their assumptions and thinking. Rogo persuaded the group to change into a team that would work together towards a common goal. On the process to convenient change management process, Rogo identified that adjusting requires one to understand what to change, what to change to, how to cause the change and lastly how the process of change can be maintained.
Importance of Individuals Being Adaptive
An employee is a unit of change for any organization. Therefore, change management should mainly concentrate at succeeding at transforming and adapting the human side. From an individual level, one should develop capacities that will enable one to be adaptive. In essence, adapting to change at an individual level allows one to avoid conflicts with others, gives one the capacity to change others, maximum and efficient utilization of resources, orderliness and up to date with current events and trends.
However, the most critical benefit of an individual being adaptive to change is ultimately the attainment of personal goals. In this case, it refers to those things that one has the desire to achieve. For instance, Rogo was able to mend his relationship with his wife by managing changes in their lives. For example, an entrepreneur is motivated and guided by the desire for success, this is therefore his goal. To achieve it, there will be external factors that will always be requiring him or her to spend more time in the business that he had initially planned. There will be technology as well. In academics, it is the same case, for good grades, which are the major goal for most students, one has to be able to be adaptive. There is need that a student sees the continuous assessments tests, examinations and assignments as experiments. The marks obtained from this are the feedback that should advice the student on how close or far he/she is far from the personal goal. One at this point is able to come up with strategies that will enable success, goal achievement.
Importance of an Organization being Adaptive
Change is very important for any organization. Without being adaptive organizations then lose their competitive edge, they fail to meet their needs and thus do not have a base where loyal customers can thrive. This has been demonstrated by Rogo and his team who in failure to be adaptive, they had not even realized the many constraints that existed before they would attain their goals. With the current trends and competition organizations must therefore include the capacity to be adaptive as an organizational culture that can fuel their goal achievement.
One of the major benefits of being adaptive is for technological advancements. Transformation of any business in line with new and modern technologies assures clients or customers about quality and class thus edging out competitors while it also increases productivity. Besides technological advancements, being adaptive has enabled organizations to be in positions that they can handle crisis effectively by for instant complying with new policies and laws that are implemented by the governments in place.
In addition, being adaptive would enable an organization to effectively and efficiently meet the needs of the customer which are very dynamic, a business should thus change with changing customer need. Another need for being adaptive is based on the realization that national and global economy is never constant, the business should be placed strategically with change mechanisms that would help the organization respond to such changes. Last but not least, an adaptive business is capable of identifying and reaping success from new business opportunities while it can also challenge the status quo that may tend to take comfort at the current situations. In conclusion therefore, attainment of individual and organization goals requires an individual and an organization that are not resistant to change but are have the capacity to be adaptive.
References
Goldratt, E. M., & Cox, J. (1992). The goal: A process of ongoing improvement. (2nd edition). Great Barrington, MA: North River Press.
Harford, T. (2011). Adapt: Why success always starts with failure. New York: Farran, Strong, and Giroux.
