The unprecedented magnitude of change in recent years has brought with it a plethora of challenges for executives, not the least of which is unlearning and relearning. Time tested ways of doing business are proving inadequate to deliver the higher standards of performance required in today’s global market environment. Executives must reconsider their preconceptions and advance how they think about leadership, strategy, and organizational dynamics.
In the new economy, success is about relationships (internal and external) and the information that is shared in those relationships. It is about opening up organizational structures to make it easier for people to connect in more meaningful and fulfilling ways.
The metamorphosis in thinking that is needed releases individuals from their roles as cogs in the corporate machine to encourage dynamic and authentic contributions. It is a transformation to Organicity™ - from rigid strategies and structures to the fluid, organic realm of natural systems.
For many executives, this change is unsettling. With boundaries redefined, strategies constantly in flux, and interactions accelerating, what feels like chaos takes over. The instinctive reaction is to resist change and restore order. However, this is exactly the opposite of what is needed to succeed.
The Clarion Group has observed the nature of Organicity within many of our client organizations. We have witnessed what happens to senior teams and individual executives who are able to see through this transforming lens. And while each organization is unique and therefore requires its own approach to experiencing Organicity, there are several common threads that exist among all companies.
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Inform-ation: The Act of Informing
Business strategies realized through Organicity evolve dynamically to reflect the state of perpetual change in which they exist. They become fluid and rapidly adjust to new realities.
The fluidity and flexibility of business strategy thus is driven by the extent to which information is accessible and shared within the organization. Information itself is both contextual (the “what” and “why”) and tactical (the “how”). For example, contextual information includes environmental trends or risks affecting the business. Tactical information includes knowing the key steps to make a partnership work or the sequencing of strategic moves.
Without both contextual and tactical information, individuals in the business are not empowered to change that which needs changing. Inform-ation in Organicity becomes the act of sharing knowledge to stimulate judgment that furthers appropriate activity.
With the drive to “inform,” business strategy in the realm of Organicity is a continual activity that enables full and quick decision-making. Strategy development relies on the embedded knowledge of people in the business to foresee changes in the marketplace. Simultaneously, the business itself values multiple and diverse perspectives to inform thinking. Like the instinctive and integrated yet seemingly chaotic nature of bees in a hive, individuals in organizations can leverage inform-ation to sense and respond to each other.
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