Yesterday through a twitter contact, I downloaded an HBR article called ‘How Great Companies Think Differently’ by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. It was published in November 2011 (http://hbr.org/2011/11/how-great-companies-think-differently/ar/1 ) and I was surprised to find what she calls Great Companies were what we would call a Self-Renewing Organisation which we had written about in 2009 in our book “Beyond Crisis”!
I find myself surprised and gratified (thank you Ms. Moss Kanter!). She reckons there are six facets of what she calls ‘institutional logic’ (as opposed to financial logic) which serve to alter leadership and corporate behaviour. They are:
• Common purpose and values
• Long term view
• Emotional Engagement
• Community Building
• Innovation
• Self-Organisation
These can easily be translated into the Five Qualities we identified that organisations need for renewal (Values, Insight, Options, Narrative and Machinery). In the end, it doesn’t really matter which model you use; what matters is that businesses understand the need for renewal and have some clear ideas on how to make it work for them.
