Denison Model: Adaptability
ADAPTABILITY
Translating the demands of the business environment into action.
“Are we listening to the marketplace?”
What is the Adaptability Trait?
Organizations hold a system of norms and beliefs that support the organization's capacity to receive, interpret, and translate signals from its environment into internal behavioral changes that increase its chances for survival, growth and development.
Three aspects of adaptability impact an organization's effectiveness. First is the ability to perceive and respond to the external environment. Successful organizations are very focused on their customers and their competitors. Second is the ability to respond to internal customers, regardless of level, department or function. Third is the capacity to restructure and re-institutionalize a set of behaviors and processes that allow the organization to adapt. Without this ability to implement adaptive response, an organization cannot be effective.
The indices of the Adaptability trait are:
Adaptability Trait Indices
Creating Change
High-performing organizations welcome new ideas and are willing to try new approaches to doing things. They see Creating Change as an important part of the way they do business.
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Customer Focus
Customer Focus is critical. Employees recognize the need to serve their customers – both internal & external. They continually look for new and improved ways to meet and exceed customer expectations.
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Organizational Learning
‘Thoughtful’ risk taking is encouraged. Organizational Learning means we gain knowledge from successes and failures. Our first reaction to reasonable mistakes is not ‘Who is to blame?’, but rather ‘What can we learn?’
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