The Importance of Organizational Maturity for Digital Transformation Initiatives
In a previous article, I asserted that preparedness is the number one determining factor for success with transformational technology initiatives. One crucial aspect of preparedness is ensuring your organization has the necessary maturity level required to successfully execute transformational technology initiatives. There are two areas that require a high level of maturity to ensure success; Operational Maturity and Organizational Maturity.
The level of maturity required is proportional to the level of transformation being attempted. If your technology initiative barely moves the transformation needle, you can succeed with a lower level of maturity. In another article, I discussed the importance of operational maturity for digital transformation initiatives. Today I would like to discuss the importance of organizational maturity.
What is Organizational Maturity
As with most business concepts, there are several definitions for organizational maturity. The KPI Institute defines organizational maturity as “generally referring to the evolutionary process of an organization building its people, processes, and technology readiness and capability through the adoption of quality practices.”[i]
Nevertheless, I prefer the definition offered by Francesc Güell, who considers the maturity of an organization as, “a measure of [an organization’s] ability to adapt to the environment, to learn, to improve results.”[ii]
My definition for Organizational Maturity is the ability of an organization to adapt to change. If change comes seldom and with great difficulty, you need to increase your organizational maturity before you can succeed with your transformational initiatives.
As I pointed out in my article on operational maturity, many maturity models[iii] can measure various forms of operational and organizational maturity. The KPI Institute lists several organizational maturity models[iv] that you can investigate for more information.
Like operational maturity, organizational maturity models generally measure maturity on a scale of five levels. These levels are generally referred to as Initial, Emergent, Structured, Integrated, and Optimized.[v]
How Organizational Maturity Differs From Operational Maturity
The primary difference between Organizational Maturity and Operational Maturity is the focus. More specifically, Operational Maturity measures how well an organization executes, while Organizational Maturity measures how effective it is at improving its execution.
It is important to note that there is a direct relationship between Organizational Maturity and Operational Maturity. In other words, organizations with high organizational maturity will also have high operational maturity.
Why Organizational Maturity is Important
If organizational maturity is the ability of an organization to adapt to change, the corollary to that is, organizations with low maturity have a lower chance to successfully implement the transformational changes they seek. Studies seem to confirm this. For example, a study done by Process Excellence Network and Gartner concluded “change programs in high maturity organizations almost always succeed.”[i]
Conclusion
It has been my experience that organizations that desire to improve are best served by focusing on increasing organizational maturity, which will naturally lead to improvements. The improvements don’t happen automatically, but they happen organically due to the type of organization you have become. To explore how your organization can raise its level of maturity, contact us. We would love to discuss how Victoria Fide can help your organization make change positive.
[i] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/organizational-maturity-why-its-important-derek-miers/
[i] https://www.performancemagazine.org/five-levels-of-organizational-maturity-performance-management-perspective/
[ii] https://www.fguell.com/en/organizational-maturity/
[iii] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maturity_model
[iv] See https://kpiinstitute.org/solutions/maturity-models/
[v] These five levels are used by the KPI Institute (https://kpiinstitute.org/solutions/maturity-models/) and (https://www.performancemagazine.org/five-levels-of-organizational-maturity-performance-management-perspective/)