Hacking HR to Build an Adaptability Advantage

Tagged "inflexibility"

luc-galoppin's picture

Ever talked to anyone who has tried to change a system from within?

Did you notice how cynical and burned-out...

By Luc Galoppin on May 20, 2022
richard-james-barnes's picture

Do you remember BS5750?  Time was when it was the only externally audited management standard and much criticised by people like me for getting in the way of continuous improvement and customer focus.  It became ISO9001 and a few years ago somebody decided that it was a decent moneyspinner for...

Standardization creates efficiency up to a certain level, but

  • before creating any new rule, check first if there is not an old rule that is no longer relevant and that can be deleted.
  • if something is not used or done as it is supposed to be, check first
  • ...
By Christel Dehaes on May 16, 2022

Poor IT systems will often drive poor processes. Poor metrics because "the system won't allow us to measure that". Finance systems can be the most limiting. Companies are reluctant to change systems as it tends to be expensive, time consuming and disruptive.

By Mark Griffiths on May 13, 2022
giuseppe-gerardo-ciarambino's picture

Standardization of processes that has as its goal the massification of human resources kills talents and inventive

Being highly adapted to the current environment can leave you less adaptable to change. Adaptation couples you to the characteristics of the environment to which you are adapted. The more heavily you rely on some characteristic of the environment, the less adaptable you are to changes in that characteristic....

By Dale Emery on May 10, 2022
leonardo-zangrando's picture

"Over Regulation" is the attitude to create detailed rules about execution of processes / activities to increase their predictability. It creates a status of helplessness in workers who feel less in control and increases their "Inability to Learn" (see my other post about it)

The need for prediction...

simon-gosney's picture

Many policies are engineered around stating what people can't do, or what they must do - not what they can do. If unchecked, this can seep into organisational culture. In one organisation, I saw a kitchen area with 16 different posters telling people what they couldn't, mustn't or shouldn't do....

By Simon Gosney on May 9, 2022

As complexity emerges, the (unfortunate) number one org habit is to implement policies, practices, and behavioural systems of control in an attempt to limit chaos.

The unintended consequence is a rigid set of dictums which are difficult to depose. If/as these pile up, the probability of being adaptable dissappates rapidly...

By Sean Schofield on May 9, 2022
julian-birkinshaw's picture

We get things done in big firms through management processes –budgeting and planning, performance management, succession planning. These processes create simplicity and order, but they also become entrenched and self-reinforcing. One example: I was asked to put on a webinar for a big publishing company a couple of years ago,...

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