Going with the current, and controlling the flow

“Shaping the Adaptive Organization”
By William E. Fulmer
American Management Association, 2002


This book on rapid change began with the subject of “land speed.”

The author points out that Craig Breedlove broke the land speed record with 600 mph on land. How did he do it? “I broke the rules,” Breedlove said. But later in 1983, Breedlove was dislodged from that distinction as the fastest man-machine alive when Richard Noble of England broke the record with a land speed of 650 mph. Noble said of his feat: “It was both exhilarating and frightening.”

Thus the author, Mr. Fulmer interestingly describes the times we – and our businesses – are in. “Due to the speed of change, companies are coping with a new reality – it is an increasingly uncertain and chaotic world.” And so you must be prepared to “break the rules.” The prospects, however, are frightening.

With that Fulmer points out that an organization can only survive rapid change if it is an “adaptive organization.” How can one adapt? The author volunteers three foundations for such a flexible enterprise – Landscape, Learning and Leadership.

Fulmer devotes the most space to Landscape. He refers to what we traditionally call the “environment.” But, since he sticks to the analogy of Life, the author calls the world within which the enterprise exists or moves as Landscape.

The reading of this section of the book is slow, difficult and complex. He quotes evolutionists, biologists, and many other scientists to prove that such a landscape is as complex and as unpredictable as an organism. He uses words as “equilibrium” and “dis-equilibrium” to demonstrate that a business, like an organism, is in a constant state of dis-equilibrium – yes, flux.

Actually, it is a scholar’s way of saying a central truth that we knew much earlier: “You can only be certain about a human being when he is dead. If he is alive, he is unpredictable.”

So, where is the author bringing us? He actually builds a case so tight that he has to give up what he learned in his MBA class in the sixties which believed the dictum – “Structure should follow strategy.” What that means is: You can only build an organizational or project structure once the strategy has been formulated.

That didn’t work, the author says.

So, he now says that “structure follows landscape.” Then, he makes this revision: “It is more accurate to say: “Both structure and strategy must adapt to the landscape.”

This Landscape has “hills and valleys, with smooth and rugged surfaces” – metaphors for lows and peaks in business, the turbulence, on one hand, and the smooth predictability of the marketplace, on the other.

The author is saying that the enterprise must adapt to the landscape. That is not new, of course. What’s new is the extended metaphor between biological life and economic life. Since life is complex enough, business must be, too, he proves. This is not actually a reassuring thought. But, the life of simplicity is over. It will never be the same.

So, he also underscores the importance of a learning organization. That’s not new, too, except that business nowadays must continually learn and re-learn strategies and competitive moves in more frequent intervals.

The author mercifully comes to a crystal clear conclusion that businesses can use. He says: “Life exists at the edge of chaos. It is near the edge that life is best able to coordinate complex activities and evolve.” This sounds familiar. Years ago, Tom Peters said in his “Liberation Management” book, that revolutionaries do not come from the center: they come from the fringes of society.

But, we must credit the author for not using mixed metaphors. He has stuck to Life’s analogies. Underscoring an enterprise’s preparedness for rapid change, he uses the “water” metaphor. “Systems too deep into the frozen ordered regime (like solid ice) are too rigid to coordinate the complex sequences of genetic activities necessary for development. If they are too far into the gaseous chaotic regime, they will not be orderly enough.” And here’s the illuminating statement: “It is the nearly melted state that corresponds to the edge of chaos.”

He is telling companies to sit at the edge of their seats, ever prepared for change. So, while the author makes much of evolution and uncontrollable forces, it is a relief that he gives credit to Leadership, the most important (I think) foundation for the adaptive organization. The innovative leader “must prevail,” to paraphrase the author’s namesake, William Faulkner, in his speech when he accepted the Nobel Prize.

This central truth boils downs to leadership. He proves his point with this statement:
“The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three – he was a genius.” Bill Gates did not develop the first computer operating system. He made his system widely available.

How to shape an “adaptive organization”? Read and comprehend this slow-read, but well-written book. Somehow, if you miss some technical points, look up Bill Gates and other leaders who serve as role models to leaders who ride “the crest of change.” In the final analysis, the leader does not always adapt. In defining moments, he is in command.