Hacking HR to Build an Adaptability Advantage

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Sprint 1.3: The Design Principles of Adaptable Organizations

Sprint 1.3 is now complete. Read the synthesis of the design principles of adaptability here.

During Sprint 1.1 and Sprint 1.2 the hackathon team developed a comprehensive list of 120 enemies of adaptability, and provided input on those that were particularly pressing.  Based on this input, we’ve identified 12 critical enemies of adaptability, which are detailed in this blog post from Hackathon Guide Chris Grams.

During Sprint 1.3, which will end on June 5, we are going to identify the design rules, or principles, that characterize truly adaptable organizations.  These principles will provide important clues for generating ideas on how to “hack” HR, something we’ll turn to after this Sprint ends on June 5.

Here are your tasks for this sprint:

TASK 1:  Get oriented by reading the introductory blog post Embracing New Principles by Gary Hamel. 

TASK 2:  In the section below, we’ve seeded a list with several principles—you can think of these as the features that define truly adaptable organizations.  We’re looking for your input on…

  1. Which of these principles are most important—and why?  Let us know by “liking” and commenting on these (feel free to build off the ideas of others).
  2. Are there other principles you’d add to this list?  Please share your principle here.

Note: you must be logged in to submit a new principle or to comment on an existing principle.

This sprint ends on June 5.
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andy-gilbert's picture
28Comments

Solution Focused Thinking at all levels

To adapt, organisations must equip their people at all levels with a solution focused "shared thinking system" in a similar way to equipping them with a shared IT system. This shared set of "adaptability tools" will develop a mindset of "possibility thinking". Embedded working practices will encourage people to Go M.A.D....

By Andy Gilbert on May 29, 2022
Thinking
Solution Focused
Go MAD
systems thinking
mix-administrator's picture
18Comments

Peer regulation

Traditional control systems ensure high levels of compli­ance but do so at the expense of employee creativity, entre­preneurship, and engagement. Tomorrow’s control systems will need to rely more on peer review and less on top-down supervision. The goal: organizations filled with employees who are fully capable of self-discipline....

By MIX Administrator on May 28, 2022
Peer regulation
mix-administrator's picture
13Comments

Transparency

Most organizations control information in order to control decisions and people.  Yet developing the most prescient view of tomorrow’s threats and opportunities, or of today’s most pressing issues, requires open and uncensored decision-making processes that exploit the organization’s collective wisdom.  Moreover, organizations where employees lack the data to act quickly...

By MIX Administrator on May 28, 2022
transparency
openness
bruce-lewin's picture
10Comments

A New Management Paradigm - New Principles, New Values and New Systems

Reading through the excellent contributions, there seems to be a thread building around the need for a new management paradigm. A paradigm that reflects and helps create:

  1. New principles
  2. New values
  3. New systems

The following extracts are all taken from this site and by viewing them together,...

By Bruce Lewin on May 29, 2022
new
management paradigm
values
systems
methods
principles
systemic
holistic
complex
fluid
Change
Environment
adapatability
9Comments

Meaning

My source of inspiration is Victor Frankel's book " Man's search for meaning" . I believe it is a must read for HR professionals and all leaders. In the age of "informing ourselves to death" (credit belongs to my teacher Prof. Neil Postman) people drown in data and information and...

By Edna Pasher on May 28, 2022
meaning
purpose
mix-administrator's picture
8Comments

Natural leadership

As change accelerates, authoritarian power structures will become ever more untenable.  In traditional hierarchies, power flows down from the top, rather than up from the bottom.  This model encourages managers to safeguard their careers by “managing up,” rather than by managing out and down.  It also produces misalignments between positional...

By MIX Administrator on May 28, 2022
natural leadership
Leadership
johnny-h-ryser's picture
7Comments

Human inspired organization

The last few days interaction and study has brought some ideas to my mind, I need to write down. If the ideal way to organize according to our nature, is very flat, and with leaders elected for the given task a given team is doing, and not given leadership for...

By Johnny H. Ryser on May 29, 2022
Leadership 2.0
organization 2.0
Community
disaggregation
mix-administrator's picture
7Comments

Diversity

Diversity is not only essential for the survival of a species it is also a prerequisite for long-term corporate viability. Organizations that don’t embrace and exploit a diversity of experiences, values, and capabilities will be unable to generate a rich variety of ideas, options, and experiments—the essential ingredients of strategic...

By MIX Administrator on May 28, 2022
Diversity
variety
mix-administrator's picture
6Comments

Experimentation

To evolve more rapidly, organizations must experiment more frequently.  Management processes that seek to arrive at the “one best strategy” through top-down, analytical methods must give way to models based on the biological prin­ciples of variety (generate lots of options), selec­tion (find low-cost ways to test critical assumptions), and retention...

By MIX Administrator on May 28, 2022
experimentation
kev-wyke's picture
4Comments

Purpose

A key principle of adaptabiity is understanding, and keeping right in front of us at all times, our Purpose, the reason why we do what we do, the reason why our organisation exists, that great and wonderful thing that we are setting out to achieve. Purpose is central to understanding...

By Kev Wyke on May 30, 2022
Clarity of Purpose
core purpose
meaning
system
purpose

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