The Dynamics of Business Behavior

3Behaviorally Informed Change Management

HOW MANY ORGANIZATIONS have you heard say something like “experimentation is in our DNA” or “innovation is woven into our corporate fabric”? The idea of having a certain quality ingrained within the foundations of your organization sounds great and is very popular, but it has one major flaw: it simply takes too long to get there, especially in today's world of increasing uncertainty and complexity. Genetic evolution often takes thousands if not millions of years to result in adaptive characteristics. Think about it: giraffes didn't grow their necks overnight when they ran out of low-hanging fruit. Some primates, however, discovered a more efficient strategy.

During the ice age, and other extreme examples of acute change in nature, many organisms relied solely on their DNA to adapt and quickly exited the gene pool. However, primates used their ability to rapidly learn from their experience and update their individual and group behavior accordingly. These early “culture changes” required their brains and nerve centers to physically rewire themselves in response to rapidly changing environments.

One of the main reasons we wrote this book is because we argue for a similar approach when it comes to organizational change. Instead of waiting for your organization's very DNA to change, leverage your collective ability to rapidly experiment, learn, and adapt. Just like primates used the adaptability of their nerve center (which literally rewires ...