Organisational Evolution
The evolution of your organisation is complex and unique.
To successfully navigate evolution, we need to work with complexity
Organisational Evolution is continuous and fit for purpose, while change and transformation can be directionless. We can assist you with our experience in strategy, design, measurement and implementation of your evolution.
Evolution efforts succeed when they:
Happen in the adjacent possible. Efforts that are too far out of reach will fail; they don't take account of where an organisation is or acknowledge the true work required for evolution. We work with organisations in their adjacent possible - a space that's just out of reach and still attainable.
Adapt good practice. Case studies and rigid or dogmatic frameworks promise results by following simple rules. In complexity solutions created for one context do not work the same in the next. We draw on the lessons, case studies, frameworks, and methodologies while recognising and accommodating for their limitations.
Build capabilities within teams. Organisational evolution is an ongoing process, and not a project that's checked off after six months. We focus on developing your team's capacity, capability, and mindset to continually evolve your organisation.
Embrace a safe-to-fail approach. Evolution requires stepping beyond business as usual without taking on any major risks. We support teams in taking on safe-to-fail or safe-to-try initiatives, building on what works and discarding what doesn't.
“For the ability to answer three simple questions: ‘what to change?’, ‘what to change to?’, and ‘how to cause the change?’ Basically what we are asking for is the most fundamental abilities one would expect from a manager.”
How We Accelerate Evolution
We take a Pareto approach to the discovery process. We start by zooming out to consider what kind of evolution is right for you and how to approach it. We then move forward quickly with a loosely held plan. It's essential for us to have a shared sense of where we're going and how we might get there, but reality eats planning for breakfast and we've found it's more valuable to get started instead of sinking resources into idealistic and unrealistic planning.
We co-create with individuals across your organisation. Organisational Evolution requires organisation-wide effort. We work directly with C-Suite and other leaders, as well as individual teams to co-create something that works in your context.
We work incrementally. Traditional consultants present comprehensive and polished programmes and promise ROI which they don't hold themselves to. We know that every change to an organisation will produce unintended consequences - both good and bad. We start with incremental changes - scaling what works and discarding what doesn't - so that you end up with sustainable changes in culture, systems, and practices instead of an expensive and failed initiative that produced new challenges.
We work in 90-day sprint. Successful evolution efforts will change your organisation. We work in short sprints, after which we step back with you and reassess whether and how we should move forward.
Organisational Evolution
Evolution comes in different forms. We've worked with a range of organisations, from startups and scale-ups to Fortune 500 organisations and international governments on a range of Evolution programmes.
We can work with you on any of the following:
Incremental Evolution: At any moment, there are multiple initiatives to focus on, but which will have the biggest impact for your organisation now and in the future? With our deep understanding of Organisational Dynamics, we can support you with identifying and taking the next best step.
Agile Evolution: Agile transformations by the numbers like SAFe and SCRUM have >80% failure. We design transformations to include complex dynamics like culture and your unique context so you can be Agile not do Agile.
Digital Evolution: Every organisation is going through some form of digital transformation. Many transformations merely focus on digitizing legacy systems, which often leads to long, expensive and failed transformations. We design digital evolution around two proven keys to success:
Re-imagining and restructuring and your offering as a set of digital services
Evolving your culture and team mindsets for digital thinking and careers
Cultural Evolution: Culture change cannot be achieved quickly. Culture is deeply embedded in an organisation and change requires enduring commitment from leadership. We blend leading-edge research and past successes to develop organisational systems that create sustained cultural change across thousands of staff.
Continuous Evolution: Organisational Evolution is a continuous process, not a series of projecs. The most enduring competitive advantage is your organisations ability to intentionally adapt to changing circumstances. We have capacity to work with a small number of organisations to support their evolution to becoming a Learning Organisation.
How to Get Started
Organisational Evolution is unique to each organisation. Our process starts with an introductory call and virtual whiteboarding session to better understand your needs.