A model to guide organizational adaptation

Successful organizations anticipate the need to change. They do so with minimal effort and a focus on improving outcomes. This paper describes a systems-based approach by which organizations can become more adaptive and thus more agile, proactive, and innovative. The key idea is the alignment of vision and strategy, culture and beliefs, processes, plans, people, and desired outcomes. Such organizations have senior leadership that consistently and effectively communicate the vision and strategy (i.e., why the organization does what it does). The organization has a shared set of beliefs about why the vision and strategy are important. The organizational culture embraces innovative thought rather than rejecting such behavior. The resultant model is a codification of best practices based on a thorough review of the innovation, strategic management, leadership, and adaptive organization literature. The model was applied successfully in the transformation of a large, applied research organization.