Three steps are essential to creating an organization bettered prepared to proactively respond to complexity and uncertainty rather than simply reacting to them. There are specific steppingstones you can use to improve an organization’s ability to respond to change. We will share the top three which do not need to be taken in any particular order, but all are needed to dramatically adjust an organization’s ability to enable people to adapt to change.
Step 1: Following simple rules
Over the years we have been taught that sophistication is needed to resolve complex problems, but in reality, the opposite is true. You need simple rules everyone can easily memorize and follow. Moreover, there needs to be a limited number of them: two to four. This creates an environment of common behaviors designed to resolve problems more easily than a large number of sophisticated directives.
Step 2: Making the sum of the whole greater than it parts
This step will likely be the most impactful regarding the ability to manifest change
and easily adapt to new challenges. Every person on a team has unique capabilities. The team itself will ultimately create group capabilities not present with the individuals beforehand. It is crucial that groups actively seek to create new capabilities to ensure daily success. The ability to adapt to change quickly is the difference between success and failure.
Step 3: Train people to operate with autonomy and authority
This step revolves around the development of two personal competencies crucial for swift and flawless adaptation during times of change and the resulting challenges. These competencies require a lengthy period of time to master because they differ from common concepts of management-employee expectations within organizations.