How to create Adaptive and Resilient organizations?

In times of the Corona virus, managers have to think about their organizations, how they can better deal with crises in the future and how they can act in crises. Due to different working conditions, such as more frequent work in the home office, you may now have the time to think about changes. This is an opportunity for further development.

What are adaptive and resilient organizations?

We mean by adaptive = the ability to change according to new conditions and by resilient = robust against dangers and crises.

What characteristics should such organizations have?

  • They are simple and transparent:
    • through fractal organization patterns on all levels
    • through transparency of work and results as well as impediments and improvements
    • due to the reduced complexity that results from the self-organization of teams. Self-organization of teams means that responsibilities are not assigned to individuals, but to teams.
  • They are adaptive because they change their processes and behaviors through self-organization and continuous improvement
  • They are more resilient because …
    • their members are motivated as a result of high trust and respect
    • their members are empowered to organize and change

All these characteristics can be found in self-determined and co-determined organizations, i.e. organizations that as a whole are committed to the principles of agility, lean management, NewWork or Holacracy. The P4 framework describes organizational patterns that correspond to these principles.

[Title photo by Tyler Lastovich on unsplash.com]

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