We have to start dealing with the 'genetics' of our
businesses if we want to achieve optimal performance at work, says
Colin Beveridge.
The IT business has always been keen on bodily
functions, using terms such as “our infrastructure is the corporate
nervous system” and “information is the lifeblood of the
organisation” to describe its vital functions.
Such analogies may well be justified and I don’t decry their
usage, where necessary to reinforce the importance of effective
technology to a successful organisation. But the corporeal
metaphors made me start thinking a bit further, beyond the obvious
similes, towards the logical conclusion of physical allusions:
corporate DNA.
After all, if we readily accept that a business can have a
nervous system, then it surely goes without saying that the
business must also have its own DNA, based on genetic elements,
those fundamental building blocks of behaviour and organisation
that make the business unique and immediately distinguishable from
other possibly similar, but perhaps subtly different
businesses.
When you think about it, this concept is quite fundamental to
the existence of every undertaking, and I’m very surprised that we
don’t read more about it, especially in the IT world, where we are
quite happy to aggregate and disaggregate business activities into
higher-level systems and processes.
I don’t understand why we limit ourselves, though, to these
superficial echelons of systems engineering and process
engineering, instead of getting down to the real nitty-gritty of
genetic engineering.
That is where the real action is if we really want to make a
difference to our business. We have to learn to deal with the
corporate body at the genetic level, if we really want to influence
the behavioural traits and characteristics of the way we work.
We need to go progressively beyond even a sub-atomic
understanding of our business processes and components, identifying
the basic attributes that we can modify, nurture or decommission,
until we achieve our optimum performance and potential.
We need to map and model our business in a whole new way. Not
just what we do, but why and how we do it too, especially the ways
in which we imperceptibly react and adjust to a changing commercial
context.
Survival of the fittest is a well-established genetic principle,
at least since the time of Charles Darwin. Perhaps it’s high time
then that we applied these rules to our business lives and make
sure that we actively strive to transmit the best possible
corporate genetic profile.
All of this sounds like an exciting opportunity for the future.
But it will require a quantum leap in the way that most of us
understand and regard our organisations, because we will be dealing
with individual and collective behaviours and traits, rather than
simple process or physical deliverables.
And we will, of course, need much better analytical tools,
techniques and measures to help us with our genetic tinkering.
Which sounds like a nice little earner for the IT business - is
anybody up for it?
What do you think?
Which genetic traits would you start with to build a better
business?
Tell us in an e-mail >>
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Colin Beveridge is an independent
consultant and leading commentator on technology management issues.
He can be contacted atcolin@colin.beveridge.name