Organisations, as with all human systems, evolve from relatively simple to increasingly complex.
Your organisation is likely to be firmly stuck in, or struggling to transition from, being either reactive, responsive, proactive, interactive or inspired.
These phases of organisational maturity were first identified and explained by Harrison Owen in his 1987 book Spirit – Transformation and Development in Organizations.
Harrison Owen provides a summary of the phases of organisational maturity in his 2000 book The Power of Spirit: How Organizations Transform:
“a ReActive Organization is the brash young startup, home to the entrepreneur. It is exciting, vital, juicy … but it has little time for customers, who always seem to be getting in the way. The Responsive Organization takes care of its customers, but in a simplistic, almost pedantic way. This is a comfortable organization, but very shortsighted when it comes to rational planning and the finer points of management. A ProActive Organization is what every well-managed organization has hoped to be, until fairly recently, where control is the most important thing, and chaos is the enemy. Under the best of circumstances this is a well-oiled machine, doing everything by the numbers. It is home to the MBA. But the good old ProActive Organization is getting very tired. The harder it tries to gain control, the more control slips through its fingers, yielding frustration, burnout, and Soul Pollution. Something has to give.”
Next up is the InterActive Organization, which actually enjoys chaos. Hidden in the orderly patterns of disorder are new opportunities and the possibility of learning constantly. Work and play are synonymous and productivity simply boggles the mind. This is a conscious self-organizing system.
Lastly there is the Inspired Organization. We really don’t know too much about this, but we have some hints, as when a research team goes so far beyond its known technical capacity that it seems to be floating in inspiration. This doesn’t happen often, but when it does, people never forget.”
Harrison Owen – The Power of Spirit
We contend (alongside Harrison Owen), that many organisations now find themselves perched uncomfortably between being ProActive and being InterActive.
It is increasingly obvious that the old ways aren’t working as well as they once did, and are increasingly counterproductive. However, an addiction to conventional ‘command and control’ approaches prevents many from moving forward.