5 Principles of Adizes Organizational Life Cycle

I have previously posted about the Adizes Organizational Life Cycle (OLC) as an incredible tool I use with clients to view their company on a macro level and successfully anticipate and manage change. 🌀

As a reminder, the Organizational Life Cycle is a framework to assess a company’s stage of development, whether in growth, maturity, or renewal, highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities that come with each phase.📈

The challenges every organization must overcome at each stage first manifest themselves as problems arising from growth, success, and external changes. As leaders, knowing and anticipating the next step is critical to success and longevity.

This simple, unavoidable reality leads to the following powerful 5 principles from Adizes that I’ve adapted in this carousel below 👇🏼

“At the foundation of effective management for any organization is the fundamental truth that all organizations, like all living organisms, have a lifecycle and undergo very predictable and repetitive patterns of behavior as they grow and develop.” – Adizes

1) Problems are normal and desirable

Problems are the natural result of change. The only place on the lifecycle curve where there are no problems is the place where there is no change, which is Death. If you think that good managers are those whose organizations have no problems, think again.

Your reward for successfully resolving the problems that confront you today, is a set of new problems tomorrow that will be larger and more complex. If your company faces a high rate of change in your markets, technology or industry, your challenge is magnified. The faster the rate of change, the faster problems appear and grow.

2) You’re not a perfect leader

Your role as a leader is not to prevent problems or slow the pace of change. Instead, focus on accelerating your organization’s ability to recognize and resolve problems.

Your ability to work together as a team and quickly tackle any and all situations, or decide not to, is your ultimate competitive advantage.

3) You are not special

Some of the problems you face are normal and some are abnormal.

Normal problems are those that are expected for a given lifecycle stage. Abnormal problems are those that are not expected (or desirable) in a stage of the lifecycle. Since you will never have enough time or resources to address all the problems you face, focus on abnormal problems.

Many normal problems can be ignored since they tend to resolve themselves during the natural course of growth and development.

4) Don’t reinvent the wheel

You can drive your organization faster when you know the road ahead. Most of the issues you face are common to all organizations. There is no need for you to reinvent the wheel.

You can save a lot of time and effort by thoroughly understanding the nature of all 10 stages in the lifecycle, and knowing what it takes to transition from one stage to the next. If you and your management team share a common understanding of this knowledge before problems arise, it will also help you attack the problems, instead of attacking each other.

5) Prime is the Fountain of Youth

Prime is the Fountain of Youth for Organizations. 

One key difference between the lifecycle for human beings versus organizations is that living things inevitably die, while organizations need not. The “age” of a company in terms of its lifecycle is not related to its chronological age, the number of employees, or the size of its assets. Instead, the lifecycle age is defined by the interrelationship between flexibility and control.

There is a fountain of youth for organizations called Prime. An organization that is in Prime has achieved a balance between control and flexibility. A Prime organization knows what it is doing, where it is going, and how it will get there. It also enjoys both high growth and high profitability. Once an organization reaches Prime, leadership must work to sustain that position. 

Concepts and principles derived from the Adizes Organisational Life Cycle by Dr. Ichak Adizes. Learn more at www.adizes.com.

Hi, I’m Sula – a C-suite workplace culture advisor with a mission to help leaders create high-performing cultures that are deeply human. 🌍

🎯 I work with founders and executives to build organizational and cultural resilience. I’m the culture audit innovator for established businesses that want to make a real impact in their industry.

💌 Contact me if you’d like to know more about how to up-level your leadership, strategy, and culture and I’d be delighted to have a conversation with you.

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