From: Karen Takle Quinn <
ktq@ndnu.edu>
Subject: Re: MG-ED-DV Complex, Adaptive Management
Phil, here's a review of Dr. Stephen Haeckel's very readable book. Perhaps,
this book might be of interest to some of the other listserv readers. The
following is my review of his book:
Haeckel, Stephen H. (1999). Adaptive enterprise: Creating and leading sense-and
�respond organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. (ISBN
0-87584-874-5)
Dr. Haeckel focuses on agility in strategy, structure, and leadership. He
suggests that in an environment where customers are demanding fast even
instantaneous responses, and where large corporations are fragmenting themselves
into smaller, quicker units, it is critical for survival to manage organizations
as systems. He outlines his new sense-and-respond business model to help
organizations systematically cope with the unexpected. This sense-and-respond
organizational model is an excellent example of a complex adaptive system.
Haeckel�s understanding and use of complexity theory principles can be seen as
major underpinnings of his model.
He suggests that an enterprise�s agility to adapt is dependent upon how it
processes information together with its ability to know when and how to
translate apparent noise into sensemaking. He suggests that no leadership role
requires more careful consideration than the one accountable for this
translation. He also suggests a comprehensive strategy for transforming firms
into an adaptive system. According to Haeckel, unpredictable, discontinuous
change requires a strategy to become adaptive. . The sense-and-respond model is
represented as a collection of capabilities and assets managed as a powerful
and purposeful adaptive system. It requires leadership competencies, along with
adopting a few new concepts and new tools. Some of the major benefits of this
approach are expected primarily to come from three sources (1) building new
business, (2) solving medium term growth crisis, and (3) preempting future
competitive opportunities.
This book includes a glossary, three well written and useful appendices plus a
detailed set of notes and references for each chapter. The major themes include
managing organizations as systems, using modular organization structures, and
accepting that adaptivity relies on agility. In Appendix A, Michael Shank
defines and describes the modular organization and outlines the choices
executives must make when transforming their firms into successful modular
organizations. This well written appendix is entitled �Creating the Modular
Organization.� James Brian Quinn, in his work on software innovation, likened
the modular organization approach to object-oriented software programming.
Shank describes the differing modular approaches taken by four firms. He helps
the reader to consider some of the decisions and tradeoffs that a firm must make
when changing to a modular approach. He briefly comments on the potential
influences of e-business.
Appendix B entitled �Collaborative Decision-Making in Adaptive Enterprises� was
written by Michael Kusnic and Daniel Owen. It suggests that sense-and-respond
organizations require strategic, collaborative, and customer-backed
decision-making processes. This appendix begins with a description of
traditional decision-making processes, and then, leads the reader by comparison
to clearer understanding of the adaptive decision processes. The adaptive
decision process helps management to better understand the information needed to
sense customer value attributes and how to support adaptive responses. It
encourages system-based decisions and aligns subsystem tradeoffs, which provides
leaders with a powerful implementation tool for sense-and-respond organizations.
Appendix C is entitled �Putting the Commitment Management Protocol to Work�.
This powerful protocol provides the basic steps for defining the roles,
establishing the relationships between roles, specifying outcomes and conditions
of satisfaction. It sequences the speech acts within and between agents making
certain that necessary communications precede the communications that depend on
them. This section defines, in appropriate detail, the tasks to be accomplished
in each of the four procedural phases. As illustrated in this appendix, this
protocol can be applied to diagnose or redesign a business process.
Haeckel has presented a very persuasive case for managing organizations as a
complex adaptive system. Drawing on systems theory and his own business
experience Steve, has developed a practical step-by-step guide for
rethinking organizational strategy, structure, and leadership. Many authors
suggest examining the organization as a system, but Haeckel has mapped out a
clear task-by-task strategy for transforming business organizations into
adaptive systems.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>