“You came here with a mindful of mush, and if you survive, you will leave her thinking like a LEADER!”
Contemporary organizations operate in increasingly dynamic and complex global environments. In order to survive and thrive, every leader must wrestle with how to cope and adapt in their environmental context.
Here’s a fancy term to use when trying to impress your friends: requisite variety.
The principle of requisite variety states that the organization’s response to the environment in which it operates must match the environment. So, if the environment is becoming increasingly complex and dynamic, so must the organization. The big idea is matching the structure of the organization with the characteristics of the environment.
When the operating environment is simple and stable, the organization can afford to be more mechanistic, using policies and procedures to deal with the normal operation of the organization.
But, when environmental complexity increases, the organization must be much more organic. In this environment, rules and regulations will not be sufficient to meet the demands placed on the organization. These environments require empowered employees who use their own judgment to respond to customer demands and solve problems.
This in turn requires leaders to develop the adaptive capacity of their teams and trust those teams to act in the best interest of the organization and its stakeholders.
Does the structure of your organization match the environment that it operates in?
Are you practicing requisite variety?
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