Adapt: Harford's Prescription For Organizational Change

The last post described Seth Godin's prescription for individual's success during change (in organizations.) Tim Harford in Adapt:deals with changes of the organization itself. He gives dozens of examples, one describes how US troops in Iraq adapted to the situation time and time again. If you are somewhat familiar with military operations, you can appreciate the story. If you are not, maybe Harford (with a few deaths) can put the fear of life in you. Maybe that's not enough for some corporate and government managers. If you have not been in an organization that faces a life or death situation, this is a good introduction. If you see this kind of situation in your company, than this is a good way to start thinking and acting before it's too late. Harford gives dozens of examples covering many different scenarios. This is almost an example book of fail first then succeed.

In today's business and government sectors, we are clearly facing not only changes, but risky ones at that. What we sometimes forget, is to listen and learn from the ones already in the same situation, or ones who already went through the same situation and came out of it somehow. The examples chosen here, from the military to agriculture, banking to engineering are certainly helpful in many areas of expertise. You will surely find something that can explain the point in your domain. "Adapt:" starts out with a chapter about complexity. We do not appreciate how our complex environment makes our work difficult. We are also not always aware how our customers and employees must handle complexity on a daily basis. The book uses the complexity of building a toaster as an example. At first I was a little annoyed by this example. As an engineer, we used to have toaster examples in classes on digital logic and product design. I assume that the British student in design trying to build a toaster on his own, was associated with a design or engineering program. In engineering we had logic problems of a Coke machine as well and old rotary dial phones. I guess using them as examples would have made the point of complexity more complicated (pun intended.)

Once you get the idea of complexity, try to somehow apply your situation to Harford's example. In the internet publishing and promotion business (my domain), the complexity situation is beyond some small companies' ability to handle. Even on man's blog, it's promotion and connection with a community of readers is a complicated task to handle. It is certainly a complex situation to handle with insufficient resources, which seems to be the common problem. Hanford does not describe why our world is complex and he does not try to handle this problem. What he does describe is how many people and organizations failed first and even many times yet adapted. This book may not solve your situation precisely, yet, it will give most corporate managers hope in solving their adoption challenge. If the US Army could manage reducing casualties, you may be able to do the same. You may also be able to save your company or product and keep some new customers happy. In times of change, it makes sense to learn from everyone that can help. Go get your copyp and see if it helps. Good Luck!