This article is the fourth in a multi-part series discussing the concepts of organizational intelligence and their impact on healthcare providers. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, or Part 3 here.

It is safe to say that any organization would prefer to be labeled intelligent rather than ignorant. When an organization fails to learn or adapt its culture to the people it serves, it is usually attributable to a systemic inability to acquire, process, or act on information appropriately.

Uncertainty

We all have had moments in our life when we feel like we didn’t have enough information to make a good decision. The trap of uncertainty occurs when an organization fails to act in a timely manner, whether for the right or wrong reasons. Some might call this “analysis paralysis”; when we agonize over a decision for so long, feeling like we just need one more reassurance, only to find that the failure to act quickly was our downfall.

Organizations with great cultures can know when enough information has been acquired, processed, and may be utilized to decide while minimizing risk appropriately.

Complexity

Every day, businesses face incredibly complex problems that they must solve to survive. But, when an organization fails due to complexity, it is rarely because of the problem itself being too complicated. Rather, they fail to adapt their culture and learning to the problem. In essence, it’s a failure to innovate.

One of the best, real world examples of this is the downfall of Tower Records. A well-known consumer music vendor, Tower Records quickly adapted to the Internet age and was one of the first groups to sell cassettes, CDs, and records on the web. Where the organization failed was in thinking of the future complexities of music consumption. Tower Records answered the short-term question of how to get music into the hands of consumers, but they didn’t think about the long-term innovations required to take the “friction” out of that transaction so that it would be an instantaneous download. The company was designed to be a retailer and approached the problem from that perspective. Instead, they needed to think like a tech firm, and their inability to pivot proved their downfall.

Ambiguity

With both uncertainty and complexity, an organization understands that there is a question or problem to be solved but can’t come up with an answer or a process to do so. Ambiguity, on the other hand, comes about when an organization isn’t even asking appropriate questions.
Kodak was once America’s top producer of photographic film. Their entire business was built around it. Naturally, as the digital camera revolution occurred, they asked the question “How do we sell more film?” Every step they took was designed to keep people purchasing more film. Unfortunately, this was the wrong question to ask. Instead, they should have asked themselves “How do we keep Kodak relevant in a world without film?” Kodak’s reliance on a traditional business model, driven by film, did major damage to the company.

Equivocality

“A camel is a horse built by a committee.”

Of the four concepts of ignorance, equivocality may be the easiest to identify culturally, but only in hindsight. Equivocality occurs when too many different approaches are being taken to solve the same problem, thus coming into conflict. It’s a war of competing ideas and methods that ensures that no one wins.

Pickup trucks are some of the most profitable vehicles that dealers can sell. Demand for trucks has never been greater; so much so that many American automobile manufacturers are adjusting their businesses away from building sedans to further focus on the truck market. But some brands just weren’t made to build trucks. Lincoln is one such brand.

In 2002, Lincoln entered the truck market with the Blackwood. What Lincoln executives failed to recognize is that their brand was not tailored to selling trucks. Lincoln wanted to produce a vehicle that fit with its luxury reputation and brand position. For instance, the Blackwood contained a stainless steel “trunk” – a purposeful wording choice to avoid calling the cargo area a “bed.” If a consumer is purchasing a truck, they are probably doing so for utility first, and luxury second. By trying to make a vehicle that appealed to both their core, high-end consumers, and to the rugged truck buyers, they manufactured a failure that went down in the history books.

Conclusion

Throughout this four-part series, we have discussed the major culture issues that organizations face in managing their internal intelligence – defining what intelligence is important to the organization, building a culture that maximizes intelligence, learning from the intelligence gained, and avoiding areas of ignorance. Yet, all these issues boil down to internal culture.

Culture is thought of as a “soft” concept precisely because it is difficult to define, and even harder to measure. Organizational Intelligence provides a framework for understanding culture through a scientific lens. By evaluating how a company or business utilizes its resources, we can better understand what it values.

The most important, and universal, resource of any business is knowledge. The way in which a group acquires, processes, and utilizes the information at its disposal represents the very foundation of culture. From those building blocks emanates the mission, vision, and values that organizations aspire to. Those aspirations are then put into operation each day through the actions of the people affiliated with the group, thus creating the feelings that we readily associate with culture.

Organizational Intelligence is not an easy concept – far from it! But, as healthcare organizations continue to grow, the need to comprehend it has never been greater. Executives who pay attention to their culture and engage in an intentional program of research around Organizational Intelligence, will be the best positioned for success in the next decade.

LW Consulting, Inc. (LWCI) offers a comprehensive range of services that can assist your organization in maintaining compliance, identifying trends, providing education and training,  or conducting documentation and coding audits. For more information, contact LWCI to connect with one of our experts!