Dean's Perspective
What is your organization’s DNA?
Dr. Mohammed Khayum
Article taken from the College of Business Reports, Spring 2009
Diagnosing organizations
to establish their change readiness
Organizations face tremendous challenges in periods of economic turmoil. As we have witnessed during the course of the past year, there is considerable variation in the ability of organizations to cope with changes in their business environment.
Advice for leaders and managers is beginning to crystallize. Renowned management consultant, Ram Charan, in his recent book (December 2008), Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times, stresses the importance of constantly revisiting plans and progress, increasing the frequency of information flows, and the importance of focusing on cash flow.
Four building blocks of organizational DNA
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The ability for organizations to diagnose their "change readiness" capacity becomes particularly important in a period of heightened economic uncertainty. One tool for doing this is the Org DNA Profiler (www.orgdna.com for businesses and www.orgdna.com/mission.cfm for nonprofit organizations) launched in 2003 by the consulting firm Booz & Company. The framework uses the metaphor of DNA to codify the characteristics of an organization. Just as DNA is the genetic building block of life, organizational DNA is viewed as the foundation for effective leadership and management.
Like the DNA of living organisms, the DNA of living organizations consists of building blocks, which combine and recombine to express distinct identities. These organizational building blocks—structure, decision rights, motivators, and information—largely determine how an organization functions and responds to challenges. Organizations manifest types of organizational DNA based on the alignment between their basic identity and their leadership and management practices.
By generating a profile, members of an organization can begin to focus on causes of their organization’s execution problems. Using the Org DNA Profiler as a starting point for discussion, individuals within an organization can identify the impediments to effective execution in their organization and develop processes to overcome them. The organizational DNA framework helps organizations identify and expose hidden strengths and entrenched weaknesses so that managers can focus efforts on reinforcing what works in their organizations and modifying what does not.
These suggestions underscore the notion that adaptive and resilient organizations are better positioned to find the upside in downturns.
