We use the metaphor of a travel guide, because every change is also a (learning) journey. Full of surprises, unexpected twists, new discoveries, but also great disappointments. Nevertheless: it is always an exciting journey
We want to help managers understand
The challenge and complexity of such change the need for their active support, commitment and participation
The need to share control and work together that there is no blueprint that fits their unique situation and context
You always develop from the point you are at, so you need to know how to properly assess your current situation and goals
How to iteratively change the organization using appropriate concepts and approaches.
The adaptive organization is no longer new – but it is still a difficult problem for many companies: The era of rapid change requires new approaches and skills from both organizations and individuals.
Every company is different – and yet there are many experiences to learn from. Patterns of what works and what doesn’t work.
We collect such patterns and prepare them so that practitioners at different levels of experience can benefit from them without creating a rigid, “one size fits all” blueprint.
Stories, Patterns and the Big Picture
We believe that there is no best way to convey information.
Casual visitors may prefer stories to decide if this is the right place. Here we offer “the map” and real life stories of what went well and what went poorly.
When things get serious, they may be interested in copying and varying the experiences of others. At this level, we provide patterns and playbooks as resources.
Advanced practitioners will move more and more to a “pull” mode. For them, we have the Pig Picture and more detail.
Scope
The ability to learn and adapt in short cycles requires a paradigm shift in many ways.
Structures which fit for purpose – able to deal with our complex and changing environment
Corporate culture – a culture of transparency and trust creates motivation and creativity.
Governance – different types of governance coexist for design, development and other parts of the organization.
Leadership model – employee development becomes more important than execution.
Autonomy and delegation – leading knowledge workers rely on their skills and intrinsic motivation.
Resilient, Viable, Adaptive
What exactly do we mean with Adaptive? The best way we found to describe the meaning of adaptivity is to compare a number of alternative system types.
Basic System types
Robust – the system remains the same, lives with uncertainty, fends off setbacks and avoids damage. In the worst case, is becomes Fragile – the system suffers damage to the point of complete failure.
Resilient – the system adapts; the system takes damage but avoids a complete failure and eventually recovers. After that, it is a changed system.
Viability
Viable is continuously and actively concerned with ensuring the stability and securing the future of the system. It is not passive like resilience. It has a concept of identity and a concept of actively shaping the future.
Adaptive
Adaptive builds on Viable Systems. Adaptive addresses themes like being embedded in an ecosystem, the strategy process, the role of leadership and corporate culture and implementing changes.
Viability
The Viability Canvas
The Viability Canvas has been created for an easier start with the Viable System Model (VSM). It allows a quick start with diagnosing the structures, the decision making and the information systems of an organization.
The Viable System Model opens the view to a third dimension of organizations: Decisions and information flow – after hierarchies and flow organization another viewpoint, which opens many insights and design options for shaping the organization.
