Adapt, Evolve and Prosper
By Heather Kinzie
When Darwin coined the term, “Adapt or Die,” he
culties, which in turn create more workforce problems.
was referring to animals. When something in their
The vicious cycle was moving the company quickly into
environment changes, do they adapt to it or do they
the decline phase.
become extinct? Alaskans certainly see Darwin’s theory
I asked: “How can Leadership respond (adapt)
in action in the mighty Musk Ox, the great Polar Bear,
to the supply/demand issue in such a way as to mainand the highly intelligent and adaptable wolf.
tain the organization’s current position or move it
Of course, Darwin’s theory can be applied to busiforward in a positive way?”
ness as well. Successful businesses adapt to changes and
The discussion began and adaptation followed.
challenges or eventually lose their ability to compete or Leadership methodically slowed down the process, givexist entirely.
ing customers a more reasonable time frame to expect
There are four phases of business evolution.
products and services. This meant a decrease in immeChallenges can occur in each of them.
diate cash flow, so they developed a creative
A requirement of any business is
incentive program to maintain a small
to adapt in such a way to positively
but consistent revenue stream.
START UP
maintain or move beyond the
Leadership hired new, albeit
current phase, while steering
unskilled staff and executed
clear of “decline.” Moving out
a rigorous job shadow and
of one phase into another
training program. They temis totally dependent upon
porarily outsourced tedious
the organization’s ability
or arduous administrative
GROWTH tasks to free up in-house
DECLINE
or inability to adapt and
innovate.
resources who could create
As a long time Human
policies and procedures in a
Resources and Organizational
short time. These documents
Development professional, my
helped to ensure consistency in
MATURITY
experience has been with gathertraining, quality and service.
ing, analyzing and providing counsel
Mindful and realistic production
to mitigate the problems changes create
of services helped employees maintain
and capitalize on the opportunities they provide.
a positive work/life balance. Meanwhile, it also
I often engage leadership and work teams by asking a
developed trust and respect for leadership because the
simple question that encourages them to develop an
workforce felt “cared for.” This built loyalty, engagement
“adaptation” mindset.
and ownership, which was all leadership needed to turn
For example, a client was experiencing growing
the production cycles back up.
pains. While leadership was thrilled there was a high
Adaptation saved this company from decline.
demand for its products and services, the company
Another client was struggling, as many of us are,
couldn’t easily keep up with it. Not only did it experiwith Alaska’s unstable economy. A previously mature
ence quality and backload issues, which created a marand healthy organization, it found itself with serious
keting and reputation problem, it also found itself with
revenue problems, bulbous and dangerous levels of
big workforce challenges. Current employees worked
credit debt and incredible workforce pressures. Leaderlarge amounts of overtime and pressures to be more
ship came to me asking for help in preparing them for
productive were unreasonably high. Skill development
the painful administration of layoffs.
only occurred “just in time” and often felt like “trial by
Instead, I asked: “How can Leadership respond
fire.” Workforce problems aggravate operational diffi(adapt) to this issue in such a way as to maintain the
STRIVE
13 July 2016