Any change, any new project requires more or less significant personal efforts to adapt. This adaptation time varies from one person to another and from one situation to the other.
Similarly, all organizations are not able to keep up with the market’s pace of evolution. We propose to distinguish between four types of organizations (illustration):
- Innovative organizations: They are locomotives that set the tone and orientation of the market. We can mention examples such as telecommunication and IT companies, but also consulting agencies.
- Alternate-paced organizations: Such organizations are up-to date vis-à-vis market leaders, yet with a shift in time. These companies display qualities such as listening, willingness and adaptation, which compensate for the lack of an innovative spirit. Yet, such companies are at risk of getting too far behind to ever catch up.
- Slow-paced organizations: Organizations whose pace becomes slow face more and more difficulty to adapt. They start accumulating delays. This slowness is a consequence of a multiplicity of potential causes. These causes may be of a technical or financial as well as of a human nature (failed management, incompetence, etc.). Managers who evolve within such an environment will develop a competency gap as compared to market demands.
- Stagnant organizations: Companies that do not move forward are losing ground. They are sick and their functioning is disturbed. Development or change is a slow, costly and painful phenomenon. As a consequence, the risk of regressing, being downgraded or even disappearing is significant. No company is immunized against falling into this category.
SELF-COACHING EXERCISES
This self-coaching sheet (exercises) aims helping you determine the pace of development of your professional environment.
These exercises are taken from chapter 3 of the book “Management by Coaching: Coping with Complexity in a Changing World”.
