Home

Change Organizations

Sat, 11/15/2008 - 21:15 — Matt

This chart presents attributes associated with "open" organizations that are more likely to be agents of and/or respond to change in their environments:

“Closed”

“Open”

Characteristics:

Temporal perspective

20th century

21st century

Spatial perspective

Local

Global

Enterprise model

Post-WWII industrial, government agency

Early-stage tech, creative media production

Organizational

Centralized, hierarchical, departmental

Self-organizing, stakeholder engagement, virtual teams

Personification

Conservative
(loyalty to legacy leaders, institutions, strategies, & tactics)

Progressive
(discover/create leaders, institutions, strategies, & tactics of the future)

Assumed operating environment

Stable
(Low rates of change and innovation)

Dynamic
(High rates of change and innovation)

Perceived value of past to future

High
Safe to drive by looking in rearview mirror

Low
(Need to drive by looking through windshield)

Human capital

Fixed at max. # of FT employees

Flexible mix of FT, PT, and significant external

Valued traits

Credentialed, experienced, polite, patient, collegial

Learner, innovator, quick study, mobile, questioning, collaborative

Hiring model

Passive
(positions are prizes awarded to applicants who best perform during the hiring process. Focus is on candidates selling to organization.)

Active
(identify high-potential individuals from unlikely sources and aggressively recruit them. Focus is on organization selling to candidates.)

Focus of individual's time/energy

Internal

External

Asset building

Brick & mortar, capital equipment,
Web 1.0

IP, electronic, stakeholder relationships, Web 2.0

Incentive basis

Execute Processes

Achieve Outcomes

Operating philosophy

Stick to plan, stay the course

Agile response as situation changes &
organization learns

Operating latitude

Constrained

Wide

Comments

Mon, 11/17/2008 - 00:25 — Anonymous

Change Organizations

This model provides much food for thought and discussions - and sometimes that's the most important thing. (It's not that we know what's "right" but that we talk about where we are and where we want to go.

I have two observations about using this model. One is to realize that often (if not usually) we don't know where we are in a continium along a particular characterstic. In fact, I suspect there are many attributes of being towards the "closed" end that cause us to also be "closed" to knowing where we are! Perhaps an assessment tool would be helpful.

Also, it seems to me that some of these characteristics are causal and some are independent. A relational diagram might show which to focus on as causal.

Dave Boyer

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Post new comment