22 / 54
24
Organizational Resilience | BSI and Cranfield School of Management
manufacturer preoccupied with the problem of increasing sales may become
locked into relentless subtle aesthetic or feature changes, whilst neglecting the real
problem of changing consumer needs that will soon make the product obsolete i.e.
they get locked into a consistency spiral without embracing flexibility (see Figure 8).
Many problems cannot easily be resolved through technical change processes
because the problem definition and our understanding of it evolve as new possible
solutions are invented and implemented. Conventional, technical change processes
do not lend themselves to rule-breaking, game-changing, paradigm-shifting
breakthroughs. As Ackoff (1974) states, organizations fail more often because
they solve the wrong problem than because they get the wrong solution to the
right problem. Heifetz (1994) also notes that “the single most common source
of leadership failure they have been able to identify in politics, community life,
business, or the non-profit sector... is that people, especially those in positions of
authority, treat adaptive challenges like technical problems.”
Figure 8: Blending PDCA and 4Sight for Organizational Resilience
The challenges encountered by organizations rarely occur in isolation, so leaders
often deal with multiple interconnected issues and problems. Thus, in complex
environments, organizations might need to improve existing processes at the
same time as embrace innovation, change and transformation (Uhl-Bien, Marion
and McKelvey, 2007). Therefore, PDCA and 4Sight may be better regarded as
complementary rather than conflicting. These two approaches can be mutually
enabling. Together, PDCA and 4Sight offer a structured framework for understanding
and pursuing both continual improvement and innovation in ways that add real
value to stakeholders and mitigate the impact of disruptions (See figure 8).
“Organizations
fail more often
because they solve
the wrong problem
than because they
get the wrong
solution to the right
problem”
Ackoff, 1974
CONSISTENCY
ACT
Correct and improve
your plans
DO
Implement your plans within a
structured management framework
INSIGHT
Interpret and respond to your
present conditions
HINDSIGHT
Learn the right lessons from
your experience
CHECK & OVERSIGHT
Measure and monitor your
actual results
FORESIGHT
Anticipate, predict and
prepare for your future
PLAN
Defining your policy,
objectives and targets
FLEXIBILITY