How Do you Define Organizational Digital Fitness

The organizational fit is the good balance of the fitting attitude and “misfit” thinking.

Organizations today are hyperconnected and over-complex, with well-mixed physical workplace and virtual team setting; multicultural, multigenerational and multi-devicing workforce, what're your team building principles? How do you define organizational fit, in order to build innovative and high-performing teams and transform the whole organization into the digital master?

The term 'fit' can be interpreted with a degree of variability. Where you want to look for 'fit' is in relation to the values you want to build or maintain within your team, and the kinds of behaviors that you would expect to see as a result of, or in alignment with, those values. 'Fit' doesn't mean that everyone needs to have the same thought process, the same personalities, the same preferences, or the same experiences. What is important is that everyone feels committed to the goals of the team, and are comfortable with the behavioral expectations associated with those goals. The fitness is also an important predictor of retention, so finding someone with the right fit can be significant cost savings over time if turnover has been a challenge for you.

"Fit or Misfit" is contextual: Are you planning to build a homogeneous or heterogeneous team; a complimentary team or a competitive team? Organizations need to be thoughtful about whether you are hiring people who are an obvious "fit," and passing on people who are less so (at least on the surface). Thought, skill, and experience diversity are what make effective innovation and growth possible, and you are selling short when you hire for homogeneity. Organizational fit from conventional lenses makes relationships easy and perpetuates the status quo, so if companies are satisfied with where they are and going then they should pay attention to fit. If things need to change then they need to quit hiring clones. Fit and diversity are not mutually exclusive. Just because two different people have different backgrounds, different approaches, and different opinions do not mean they can't be a good fit. Organizational fit means "incluversity," not about cookie cutting or hiring clones.

The organizational fit is the good balance of the fitting attitude and “misfit” thinking. At the ultimate level, organizational fit means to well balance the fit (good attitude and accepted behavior) and misfit (independent thinking and creativity). Organizational fit means more about value adding or behavioral norms. And people need to be intentional about how they enter the role, focusing on understanding and respecting the people, culture, and history. The failure to do this is one of the biggest causes of derailment -- and creator of the perception of poor-fit. The fit is also not equal to be compliant only, the ‘group think’ is one of the most devastating to team performance and certainly to a team’s ability to innovate. Organizational fit, manifested in accepted and expected behavior, has a way of neutralizing differences. At today’s digital new normal, the culture fit means organizations need to proactively seek different ideas and engage in healthy debate and critical thinking with diverse points of view.

The best an organization can do is to hire someone with the potential to fit with a positive attitude, but be cautious of “too fit” on the surface, build complimentary team with cognitive difference and diversified skills & experience, and then support the process of "wiring" them to the role and company in order to shape high-performance digital workforce to competing for the future.

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Posted in: Change Management,culture Master,Digital Fit,Digital Master,Talent Master