IMPERIA |
october-november-december 2019
16
I N T E R V I E W
e cannot innovate because
our people are too risk
averse”, says middle
management. “It’s middle
management: They don’t want
change”, says top management.
“Our CEO is set in her old ways”, say the
employees. You have heard it all before. And
yes, human resistance to change is a real
thing. As humans we have different risk profiles.
Some like to bungy jump, some prefer watching
Netflix on the couch. We humans also have in-
born biases such as the status quo bias, which
means that we would rather not loose than win.
This means that any bigger journey needs to
be pretty compelling to get most of us excited
about it. And we also have capability deficits. In
fact, a recent global study of 2,000 managers
showed that 76 per cent of them believed they
do not have the capabilities in-house that they
need to move into the future. So all of this is
real and creates human resistance to change.
But human resistance to change is not the
most important barrier for innovation. Far more
important than the individual resistance to
change—what you could also call the individual
immune system—is the organisational immune
system.
The organisational immune system consists
of an organisation’s KPIs (key performance
indicators) and reward systems, its legacy
structures, processes, and tools as well as
its investors’ and shareholders’ demands on
returns.
The reason that the organisational immune
system is far more important is because if
you put it up against the individual immune
system, the former will always win. It is far more
powerful than any individual, even the CEO.
Thus, if you want to increase your chances of
success with the transformation and innovation
Indicators of Change
The organisational immune system can be compared to the immune system in humans—both,
basically, work towards resisting external threats. However, speaking of the former, should it be
so rigid that it prohibits all ideas, irrespective of whether they’re good or bad? In such a case, it
becomes more of a hindrance to progress than a protective measure.
Kris
Oestergaard
is co-founder
and Chief
Learning and
Innovation
Officer, at
SingularityU
Nordic. He
is author of
‘Transforming
Legacy
Organisations:
Turn Your
Established
Business into
an Innovation
Champion
to Win the
Future’.
He is also
a speaker,
facilitator,
researcher,
and expert
on innovation
in legacy
organisations,
corporate
cultures, and
exponential
organisations.
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