Introduction
The "Titanic syndrome"
How organizations change over time
Succumbing to the "Titanic syndrome"
The roots of the evolutionary organization
Principles of the evolutionary organization
>>The evolutionary organization-- an operational perspective
The evolutionary organization-- a management perspective
The evolutionary organization-- a new science perspective
A practical experience in building an evolutionary organization
Summary

(continued from Principles of the evolutionary organization)

The evolutionary organization – an operational perspective

Although Figure 2 shows a smooth performance curve for the EVO over time, we envisage that in reality this diagram represents innumerable overlapping formative-normative curves, each occupying extremely short time frames as bursts of earning-energy [49] follow one another in rapid succession. We think of the EVO as existing in this disequilibrium, leveraging the tension between the formative and normative phases. Schon [57]caught the spirit of an EVO when he wrote "The business systems as a whole had been significantly transformed, but through a kind of systems-interaction managed by no one. An innovation in one part of the system led to another, creating waves of new requirements which others in the system had to respond to in different ways. To each element in the system the wave brought requirements or opportunities for new products and services. The diffusion of product-innovation contributed to the overall transformation of the system whose character became clear only after the fact."

Figure 2

Within such a pliant and agile company there are rules, but the rules may be broken, and there is questioning, creativity and innovation. As is typical of the start-up mode, the EVO dares to accept and achieve continuous change and surprise [8], swimming in many interpretations, discussing, combining and building on them. Co-operation, productivity, and efficiency are emphasized as people work to achieve, not to control. Decentralization and diversity are paramount, but do not block the flow of ideas between regions [58]. There is flourishing teamwork, and people are challenged to create an organization of "winners". Employees are challenged to develop a culture that makes it clear that "What’s my job?" is the wrong question; they are continuously asked instead to answer "What’s my function? What’s the purpose of what I am doing? What value do I add?". As Peters says "If it ain’t broke, you haven’t looked hard enough. Fix it anyway" [59].

In an EVO, the focus on contradictions demands new perspectives for reconciliation and collaboration to resolve the ambiguities and dilemmas. This results in natural learning in the sense described by Dickens "I took a great deal o’ pains with his education sir; I let him run the streets when he was very young, shift for his-self. It’s the only way to make a boy sharp, sir." [60]

We believe changing tools changes who we are…

Computer-telecommunications networks most effectively facilitate the designed connectedness that enables the EVO to develop its most potent collaborative infrastructure, and provide the current through which knowledge can travel instantly across the organization. The EVO’s identity and purpose are embodied in the network for all to access and fashion dynamically, contributing to the EVO’s creative tension. Command and control hierarchies are no longer required since the virtual workspaces are put to good use in maximizing coherency [39, 61-63]. These networks can be extended to include not only employees out to the periphery, but also the customers and suppliers; in this way customer capital is enhanced. Networking is also a strategic resource with social as well as efficiency effects [64]. It has a unique capability to restructure operations and hardly a single aspect of business is not touched. We believe changing tools changes who we are. People pay attention to different things, and depend on one another differently. This encourages synthesis of members’ interests, and the flow of value-adding knowledge helps legitimate the organization as a learning community [65]. As the EVO evolves, learning is continuously occurring, even if transparently, and the EVO’s intellectual assets are enhanced [53].

The EVO’s collaborative infrastructure enables employees to share their talents in ways that both satisfy their need for expression and the organization’s imperative for results [33]. As the EVO’s population explores their fitness possibilities by changing behaviour, they evolve faster than a population that is not. This is because learning and evolution together are more effective than either alone. It is important to note that by design, problem tasks for learning in an EVO are selected by the population itself as members go about their work.

The EVO leverages the tension between exploration and exploitation…

One of the key competitive advantages of the start-up organization which the EVO seeks to capture and leverage is its creative nature. Fritz [66] correlates creativity and learning with structure. Bereiter and Scardamalia [67] provide additional insight into how the EVO can promote creativity. The EVO endeavors to create a second-order environment that will support this ever-expanding expertise, replacing the first-order environment that encourages the reduction of everything to routine.

The EVO structures the organization so that employees are forced to solve their own problems. In this way expertise is enhanced and reinvested. Experts can learn to become even more expert as they take bigger risks; when they do succeed, they develop from the experience the kind of knowledge that increases the likelihood of their success. That is they "learn to learn" [68]. Having the talent for making the right decisions is gained through making decisions based on working through many small risks beyond current expertise, and becoming increasingly familiar with the patterns of success. This is the tension between exploration and exploitation [69] which the EVO leverages.

We have said that leadership and strategy are the keys to maintaining this tension. It is critical that the EVO's leaders provide a meaningful vision so that indviiduals see their work as contributing towards it; Bereiter and Scardamalia [67] quote Henry Adams who said of the stone mason: "he does not say 'I'm carving a stone' but rather 'I'm building a cathedral'". It is strategy that creates this stretch.

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The Saint-Onge Toolkit www.saint-ongetoolkit.com was released on November 1, 2001. It is an online learning platform containing rich media Powerpoint Presentations, a monthly seminar and Discussion Group that focuses on the core ideas of Hubert Saint-Onge's Knowledge Assets Strategy. $200US for a three-month subscription. It can be customized for a CKO's corporate knowledge strategy implementation.