Qualities of an Adaptive Organization: How Does Your Organization Measure Up?

By: Alexander Grashow and Marty Linsky and Ronald Heifetz

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis: Diagnosing the organizational system, the adaptive challenge at hand, and the political landscape in an enterprise takes time, careful thought, and courage. You have to improvise creatively and responsively as you engage stakeholders inside and across the boundaries of your organization. Some organizations have the keen external sensors, internal norms, and a critical mass of people to do this. What distinguishes these enterprises? What makes some organizations more adaptive than others? In this chapter, the authors identify the characteristics that make some organizations more adaptive than others and offer a worksheet that will help you assess how well your organization stacks up. This chapter was originally published as chapter 7 of "The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World."