A framework for thinking about change
The ideas discussed below are taken largely from a book called: Getting to Maybe, by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman and Michael Quinn Patten.
Resilience theory offers a way of understanding how individuals and organizations can experience change, yet retain the integrity of their original purpose.
The cycle of adaptive resilience has four stages: release, reorganization, exploitation and conservation. These stages happen continuously and simultaneously. An organization or organism is always, in every moment, present in the release, reorganization, exploitation and conservation stages.
As each stage is explained, it is helpful to think of how forests remain resilient. A forest remains resilient by periodically catching fire. Underbrush is cleared, and portions of the canopy are decimated. Ash adds to soil fertility, and winds disperse seed. New growth is given an opportunity to emerge. In this way, the forest culture remains diverse, and the possibility of infection by ravaging disease is minimized.
Release: At the release stage, organizations are either forced or persuaded to give up something old to free up existing energy and other resources so they can invest them in something new. This is the stage at which change is initiated. When forests are destroyed by fire, potential is released that ultimately preserves the forest. We call this moment “creative destruction”. Forests that are improperly managed do not go through this stage. They lack diversity, become overgrown and are unable to self-generate. When a disaster does hit, they are wiped out.
In organizations, the release stage opens the possibility for latent creativity and innovation to emerge. Like managed forests, organizations can fail to go through a similar process of “creative destruction” by focusing only on what has made them or others successful. Focusing on “best practices” or being “strategically focused” are examples of practices that can cause organizations to lose peripheral vision and predictive capacity. Consequently, they become locked in a rigidity trap. When competing organizations emerge with a “new way”, a “killer app” or a disruptive technology, the organizations that “didn’t see it coming” fall by the wayside. In these ways, the drive to managed efficiency can threaten long-term effectiveness and survival. Creative destruction in organizations happens when they allow for mistakes, duplication of effort and the disruption of existing processes and guidelines.
Reorganization: After a forest fire, new seeds from many species quickly take hold. Intense competition emerges, and some seedlings die as other, more robust species win the competition for scarce resources. In organizations, re-organization formally happens as priority-setting. Failure to set priorities, or as in the forest, the failure of new species to flourish at the expense of others, results in a poverty trap. There are finite resources to go around, and if all ideas survive, none will grow to maturity. While the release stage guards against rigidity, the reorganization stage puts limits on diversity.
Exploitation: At the exploitation phase, heavy investments are made in winning species and winning ideas. They draw the lion’s share of attention and resources. The system does not dwell on what has been left behind, but it must also be careful not to put on blinders. In organizations, leaders still need to see the whole system of the organization and the environment in which it must succeed. At this stage, when growth and success are heady, leaders must be careful to simultaneously be aware of all other stages: release, reorganization and conservation. They must have predictive power.
Conservation: When forests and organizations mature, leaders seek to conserve what they have. In the forest, trees form a dominating canopy that both shelters some organisms, and suffocates others. In organizations, the conservation stage is typified by profit taking and celebrations of success. These are important activities that help us to believe in what we have done and in our ability to succeed. For a time, they create extra resources that can be invested in the future. But these times also blind us to the need to see changes in the environment and of the need to release.
Being resilient means avoiding the rigidity and poverty traps. It means that organizations must be willing to set priorities, on the one hand, while not becoming stuck in old ways or mature states.
© Leap Corporation 2009