Change
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” —Charles Darwin
Change is inevitable. Change is the mantra for survival and success. The business scenario is continuously changing rapidly across the world, and organizations must keep pace with the same, reinvent and evolve accordingly to achieve organizational excellence and effectiveness. Managing change is complex because organizations function as ecosystems. A change in any element of the ecosystem inevitably causes changes in its other elements.
Hard & Soft Elements
Ecosystems consist of both hard and soft parts, ideally working in unison to ensure the transformation of inputs into outputs. To perform optimally, organizations should strive for symmetry between hard and soft parts.
| Hard | Soft |
| Tangible objects | Intangible, behavioural aspects |
| Strategy, process, structure, etc. | Leadership, culture, values, etc. |
| Clear goals and objectives | Organisations as social entities |
| Easier to discover and measure | More subjective and less easily measured |
| Quantifiable data | Goals need negotiation |
| Control mechanisms are clear | Different perspectives |
| Unitary view of the organisation | Consensus/conflict view of the organisation |
Discover Symmetry
Symmetry refers to a sense of harmonious proportion and balance in the organization – no specific part should take precedence at the expense of other parts. And this is where the Discover Business Performance Assessment comes into play. Discover uses the Symmetrix© instrument which measures different elements in each of the following ten dimensions to obtain a complete picture of the organization:
Symmetrix © Instrument
Optimizing Performance
In general, management is more comfortable dealing with hard issues and tend to be less experienced in dealing with soft issues. However, soft issues will not vanish if only the hard issues are addressed. This view has caused the downfall of many change efforts leading to only marginal performance enhancement. Optimizing performance requires focusing on both hard and soft dimensions.
“Hard is Soft. Soft is Hard” – Tom Peters
Discover Business Performance Assessment
Through the application of Symmetrix©, the Discover Business Performance Assessment gauges hard and soft dimensions in one go to provide clear baselines for establishing change efforts. Gone are the days of approaching performance improvement in a disjointed fashion using an array of different tools. The Symmetrix© instrumentis an integrated, holistic tool, yielding a number of advantages such as:
- Revealing focus areas in need of improvement
- Establishing baselines for measuring change
- Gauging the organisation’s appetite for change
- Analysing the gap in expectations
- Identifying change imperatives
- Serving as inputs for constructing a change plan
- Complemented by a tried and tested organisation renewal methodology
- Inexpensive with a quick turnaround time, and
- Involving top management and employees.
Discover Business Performance Assessment
To book your assessment or to learn more about this exiting tool, contact Cobus Terblanche now on +27 832817246 or [email protected]
Author: Cobus Terblanche
What determines how a transformation project unfolds, is the set of beliefs that the leadership brings to it.
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