The final core trait, ADAPTABILITY, looks at:

CREATING CHANGE – how frequently and readily new ways of doing things are adopted and the overall openness to change that exists;

CUSTOMER FOCUS – our commitment to engage and understand our customers/end users and respond to their changing needs; and

ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING – the ability for the Organisation to be reflective, where it learns from both successes and failures.

What does high performance look like in the ADAPTABILITY domain?

Adaptability is about ensuring that we go beyond ‘responsiveness’ and proactively look for new and improved ways to do work. Organisations with high adaptability are reflective and see both success and failure as a valuable learning opportunity. As a result, people feel willing to try new approaches, challenge the status quo and take appropriate risks. End-user needs and expectations are understood and considered as decisions are made. Adaptability in the Denison model has three components (called Indexes) and high performance in each may be described as:

CREATING CHANGE - Change is seen as an important part of the way the organisation operates. New ideas are welcomed and there is a willingness to try new approaches. Speed and agility allows the organisation to recognise and respond to the broader environment, reacting quickly where required and anticipating future changes.

CUSTOMER FOCUS - There is a passion and desire to cultivate relationships with end-users that ensures the organisation can anticipate and respond appropriately to their needs.  The organisation actively seeks input and feedback from end-users and then applies that data as it makes decisions about how it operates.

ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING – the ability for the organisation to be reflective and engage in continuous learning is seen as an important asset and is applied in practice. When mistakes occur the focus is on ‘what can we learn?’ rather than ‘who is to blame?’.