How to Make Your Organization Future-Proof

It’s important in a transformation to future-proof your organization. I very much liked the recent episode of the McKinsey podcast titled ‘How to future-proof your organization’. Chris Gagnon and Elizabeth Mygatt shared their insightful views on how to make your organization proof for the post-pandemic world. Some of the highlights:

1. Purpose
   Research shows the increasing importance of purpose. So the essence of why you exist is really, really important. It must be strong to inform and guide hard decisions at the organizational level.
   
   
2. Value agenda
   Get truly clear on how to align your organization around the things you really need to be good at, in a distinct way. This will help you mobilize resources and focus on the things you have skills and talents in to outperform the competition.
   
   
3. Culture
   What’s the secret sauce? Every successful
   organization has a distinctive culture. This culture is not for everyone, but it attracts the kind of talent and skills the organization needs to achieve its goals. Companies in the top quartile of the Organizational Health Index perform 2.5 to 3 times better than the median.
   
   
4. Diversity
   The importance of diversity and inclusion is not just a human argument. To manage change, you need diverse perspectives and styles.
   
   
5. Beyond the organizational chart
   In the post-Covid world, organizational structures will become more flexible and flatter.
   
   
6. Flexibility in decision making
   There will still be business units, functions, regions, customer segments and initiatives, and you will need to manage them all. But there is a greater need for flexible, team-based methods to get things done. Speed is becoming more important than accuracy in decision making. With Zoom, you can get 12-16 people on one screen. You want to have the people there who know what’s going on and can make important decisions.
   
   
7. Talent
   Talent is a scarcer asset than financial capital. Having the right talent to execute your strategy is paramount, but also how you create a distinctive employee experience that builds, develops, engages and excites people. Also important is how you create an analytical, data-driven HR powerhouse.
   
   
8. Partnerships
   The transaction costs of working with third parties are falling, as is the growth of the gig economy, making the ecosystem of privileged partnerships increasingly important. Organizational boundaries are blurring.
   
   
9. Data
   Winners are thinking hard about what information they want to own. They invest in platforms to make it easier for employees to share and collaborate on data.
   
   
10. Continuous learning
    Many of the jobs in 2030 do not even exist today. Identify the skill gaps needed to implement your strategy, then create programs to fill them. Remember that it is a moving target.