Page 66 - The Resilient Organization

Performance Traps 53

precisely because those existing characteristics were the reason for prior
success (and thus they are heavily entrenched and honored as ways of
working). Not because they do not do anything. But because they keep
doing the wrong things. This is what Sull calls “active inertia.” For
example, it is currently difficult for Dell, the online computer seller, to
change its ways to compete with Hewlett-Packard, which has a more
diverse customer engagement model (and sells a lot of printer ink too).
Other researchers already noted the paradox earlier: “An example
of processes of inertia is Miller’s research (1993; Miller & Chen, 1994)
demonstrating that inertia is often the unintended consequence of suc-
cessful performance. Successful organizations discard practices, people,
and structures regarded as peripheral to success and grow more inatten-
tive to signals that suggest the need for change, more insular and slug-
gish in adaptation, and more immoderate in their processes, tending
toward extremes of risk-taking or conservatism. These changes simplify
the organization, sacrifice adaptability, and increase inertia” (Weick &
Quinn, 1999: 369). Further, D’Aveni found an enemy of resilience in
that “pure profit maximizing behavior may be at the expense of orga-
nizational survival” (D’Aveni & MacMillan, 1990: 135).

SUCCESS IS A GREAT SLAVE BUT A POOR HOST

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers (2008), suggests that the story of
success is essentially a matter of luck, whereas Jim Collins, in his book How
the Mighty Fall (2009: 119), claims that there are “principles of greatness”
companies can practice. Whom do you believe? Both are probably right—
once you get lucky, practicing greatness is well advised. Surely you can even
increase the odds of becoming great (somewhat) by your own actions (as
captured in Collins’s previous book Good to Great). However, relying on
very generic recommendations such as “choose the right people to lead”
can be hazardous. What if you make a mistake? Weick and Sutcliffe (2007:
70–71) talk about FedEx Global Operations Control’s achievement of mov-
ing 100 percent of the packages on time as an example of resilience “despite
the presence of adversity . . . such as . . . lousy leadership and performance,
and production pressures.”