Albert Einstein once said, ‘The measure of intelligence is the ability to change’

In the context of an intelligent organisation when it comes to change, this means;

- Having a learning orientation so that all levels of the organisation are committed to learning, to actively seeking out new information, learning from experiences, building effective knowledge management systems, always stiving for that 1% incremental growth. Make use of the tacit information within your organisation – build it into your overall talent and succession planning – ask yourself - how do we bring these people with us?

- Being agile and adaptable, enabling them to not only respond quicker to change, but having people within the organisation who will proactively look for opportunities through change and bring them into the company, and supporting them as they do so. If you want to see examples of this, have a look at Kotter’s duel operating model, or ‘google’ Googles previous 20% time policy. Proactive change management (music to my ears) is a huge marker of an intelligent organisation – strategic planning, scenario analysis…preparation for future challenges, and the opportunities that arise from them.

- Having a culture of innovation. Fancy words but what does this mean? In two words…empowerment and trust. Entrusting your employees to experiment, take risks, explore new ideas…driving meaningful change. Having leadership that is adaptive to changing situations and able to support experimentation – accepting failures as learning opportunities and encouraging new ways of working.

- Building processes, structure and a culture that supports open, honest, and effective communication. Intelligent organisations don’t send blanket emails. They don’t blast information out to everyone (and then wonder why no one opens their emails). They prioritise clear, transparent comms that include the information that the recipient needs to know – and yes, thorough stakeholder analysis and mapping sits behind this.

- They create and optimise feedback loops. Intelligent organisations know that they can only learn and move forward if they are requesting and analysing feedback and implementing the lessons learnt, creating agility and an ability to pivot during change.

- They recognise the importance of resilience, and strive to build this capacity within the organisation. Resilience in systems and resilience in people. They do this by ensuring that their employees are given the training they need to make an impact. That employees understand the longer-term strategic vision and objectives, and know that often getting from A (where we are now) to B (where we want to be later) won’t be a straight line, and they are empowered and trusted, and given the knowledge and skills they need to create that pathway.

Of course, we could probably go on for pages and pages on this topic, but these are a few areas for you to take away and ask yourself, ‘is my organisation intelligent? Or are there some areas we could do better in?’

In essence, an intelligent organisation is one that is wholly committed to continuous learning. It’s an organisation that is able to adapt to changing situations, able to foster innovation, and leverage the challenges that change brings to drive continuous improvement and gain a competitive advantage.

All of this starts with your biggest asset – your people!

At Glass Ripple Consulting, we work alongside you in providing change training for all levels of your organisation so that they can lead, manage and support change. From your leaders to your change managers, to your enablers of change – your change agents. We know that when you effectively train your people in the practical skills they need at each level and support them in their learning and implementation of these skills, you will not only raise your organisation’s ability to drive forward successful change initiatives, but you will also have a positive impact on the morale, wellbeing, and engagement of your individuals and teams.

All of our training works in alignment with your organisational goals so you know that you are not only set up for change happening now, but in the future.

If you would like to know more, then pop on over to our website, www.glassrippleconsulting.com or send me an email at zoe@glassrippleconsulting.com and we can talk about our core change management courses, The Change Leader, The Certified Change Manager™ and The Change Agent, along with the other bespoke workshops we run.

Glass Ripple Consulting is a CPD accredited provider, and we work with organisations to support them in becoming change ready – now and in the future.