Pattern-Based Approaches for Organizations' Agility

Introduction

Technology’s role in the enterprise is increasing. This does not mean, however, that the role of the information technology (IT) organization is increasing. Chief information officers (CIOs) concentrating on (IT) as a force of operational automation, integration, and control are losing ground to executives who see technology as a business driver and source of innovation. Effective leaders use technology, which includes IT, to strengthen the customer experience and eliminate costly internal distortions (McDonald & Aron, 2012, p. 2).

In this work we illustrate innovative approaches which are used in analyzing and modeling behavior of the systems. These theories and their concepts are used for investigating the problems that belong to the domain of organizational systems.

Pattern-based approaches enables business leaders to seek, model, and adapt to new and emerging business patterns that could represent opportunities and threats. Pattern detection is not new. Any human activity involves pattern seeking and modeling — for example, making a business decision or identifying a potential problem are all about pattern seeking and modeling (Burton, Genovese, Rayner, Casonato, Smith, Beyer, Austin, Gassman, & Sommer, 2010).

Pattern-Based Strategy complements Boyd's emphasis on the need to quickly identify, analyze and synthesize patterns to gain competitive advantage. Trust and accountability are essential for an adaptive organization. Leaders who empower individuals with implicit guidance and control will establish organizations that proactively seek, model and adapt to patterns of change better than their competitors.

Organization’s competitive advantage and survival are about recognizing and acting on patterns before others. Previous strategic planning models were strained to seek changes, predict outcomes, adequately guide decisions and assist leaders in defining governance models that embrace change. Through a focus on pattern-based strategy organizations will move from being “reactive” to being “proactive” (Genovese, Sribar, Prentice, Burton, Austin, Rayner, Popkin, Smith, & Newman, 2009).

The adaptive organization takes immediate action to exploit opportunities or mitigate threats by sensitizing itself to changing patterns. Meanwhile, the reactive organization ponders and waits until all the facts are in, while fast-changing events or circumstances quickly overtake them. It then tries to calculate the impact on operations, customers and partners. Successful organizations are those that adapt to change faster than their competitors, through the appropriate use of information technology (IT).

The theories of strategist John Boyd — coupled with Gartner's Pattern-Based strategy — will provide leaders with the insight and actions they will need to transform their businesses into adaptive organizations. These two approaches complement each other in the following ways:

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  Examining the specific challenges facing today's leaders and explaining how an adaptive organization meets such challenges;

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  Learning Boyd's strategic theories and frameworks — notably his OODA feedback loop — which organizations can use to make their decision-making processes faster and more implicit, empowering individuals on the front lines to adjust the tempo of operations (either speed up or slow down) before competitors;

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  Four phases of OODA loop can be mapped to Pattern-Based Strategy, which enables the adaptive organization to quickly transition to a more proactive, “seek, model and adapt” culture (Newman, 2011).

The description of two pattern-based approaches will be given later in the paper.

Adaptability

As we have announced in the introduction, adaptive organization takes immediate action to exploit opportunities or mitigate threats by sensitizing itself to changing patterns.

From the literature (Genovese, Sribar, Prentice, Burton, Austin, Rayner, Popkin, Smith, & Newman, 2009) is known that: