Here is another online article from Deloitte’s Center for the Edge (probably co-authored by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison) that will assist rethinking the DNA of an organization. “The Center for the Edge, part of Deloitte LLP, helps senior executives make sense of and profit from emerging opportunities on the edge of business and technology. What is created on the edge of the competitive landscape—in terms of technology, geography, demographics, markets—inevitably strikes at the very heart of a business. Our mission is to identify and explore emerging opportunities related to big shifts that aren’t yet on the senior management agenda, but ought to be. While we’re focused on long-term trends and opportunities, we are equally focused on implications for near-term action, the day-to-day environment of executives.

“We invite you to learn more about the Center and its unique perspective.”

To do so, please click here.

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In times of exponential and destabilizing change which we’ve described in our annual Shift Index (by the way, check out our new Shift Index iPad app) making the right move is more important than making a big move. How can firms leverage the forces that drive change to achieve much more with much less?

The answer may lie in adopting what we call a “Pull” strategy. While adopting ‘Pull’ requires rethinking the DNA of your organization, the undertaking need not be daunting. This is what we refer to as “small moves, smartly made” which is a methodology to help executives achieve fundamental change through smaller, pragmatic steps. Unlike traditional change approaches, these ‘pragmatic pathways’ reduce risk by decreasing initial investments and shortening payback periods.

In our paperback edition release of The Power of Pull, we explore how organizations can align themselves with the new infrastructures in the digital landscape to:

• Access new sources of information
• Attract likeminded individuals from around the world
• Create serendipity to increase the likelihood of positive chance encounters
• Form creation spaces to drive themselves and their colleagues to new heights
• Transform themselves to adapt to the flow of knowledge

A Pragmatic Pathway to broad internal change

How can your company maximize upside potential, minimize investment and compress lead times? Pragmatic Pathways is our framework for executives seeking to embark on this difficult, but necessary transformation. The principles include:

Circumvent Internal Resistance: Often, the most significant obstacles for change occur internally. Seek alignment where possible, but when alignment isn’t feasible, circumvent conflict rather than face it head on. Find ways around detractors and lengthy approval processes by minimizing initial investments, shortening timelines, and seeking out those in the organization most willing to embrace change.

Leverage Your Ecosystem: Help your organization establish its place in its broader ecosystem (which consists not only of your suppliers and customers, but groups in adjacent businesses and your consumer’s influencers). By partnering with companies with complementary skillsets and expertise, you will be able to find better solutions, faster and with less initial investment than you could on your own.

Employ Disruptive Tools: Use new tools such as social media and cloud computing to aid in the change process. They can serve to increase the speed of information flow, transparency, and scalability, as well as aid in better decision making, flatten organizational hierarchies and circumvent bottlenecks that act as roadblocks.

Aim for Immediate Impact: Design your change initiative to have tangible benefits as soon as possible. Through the natural process of trial and error that comes from quickly developing and testing ideas, change agents can simultaneously gain traction by quickly showing the benefits of their initiative while also adjusting and correcting areas of failure.

Achieve Long Term Transformation: While these principles are designed to have short term impact, they also help organizations develop cultures and practices become more fluid and flexible. Step by step, these small moves transform organizations and enable them to respond to future disruptions more easily.

Look for our Pragmatic Pathways paper releasing in just a few weeks

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To learn more about Deloitte’s Center for the Edge, please click here.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion, co-authored by Hagel, Brown, and Davison. Hagel and Brown are co-chairmen of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge. Davidson serves as its executive director.