Recently the global consulting firm BCG noted that “75% of transformation efforts don’t deliver the hoped-for results”. Building on this. Nadya Zhexembayeva highlights how bad we tend to be at adapting to overcome risks. In a recent article (read it here) Zhexembayeva suggests that by flipping three of our very ingrained assumptions, the results will improve.
The three assumptions Zhexembayeva challenges are:
- Follow best practices – instead, share your failures
- If it ain’t broke don’t fix it – instead, fix it anyway
- Control your assets, instead – share your assets.
Sharing our failures can both increase creativity and strengthen a team, and there is ample research to support this. Equally so, engaging employees in scenario and contingency planning can encourage them to think about being proactive about improvements, rather than waiting for a crisis to force change. And the idea of sharing unused capacity to save money has plenty of support from major industries across the world.
The main thrust of Zhexembayeva’s article is that the environments in which we operate are now in constant flux and adaptability is necessary to survive. So by taking on board these strategies, your organisation can not just survive, but thrive.