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One of the biggest challenges in building capability models is getting people to move from functional thinking (the things we do) to capability thinking (the ability we have to do things). The reason this is so difficult is that organizations generally create organizational functions around capabilities so they often look very similar. For example, most organizations have a marketing capability and a marketing function where most of the marketing capability resides. Even when marketing is distributed across different lines of business we still think of it as a function first. One of the common ways to develop a capability model is to look at the functions an organization has and uncover the capabilities behind that function. This leads to capability models that are tightly related to functions.
But what about capabilities that are truly distributed across the entire organization and don’t have a corresponding function? These capabilities are not intuitively obvious and are often missing from the capability models I see. Here are five essential capabilities every organization should have:
Leadership. We often think of leadership as a set of people at the top of the organization but it is actually a skill that can, and should, exist at every level. Leadership is the capability to inspire and motivate people to fulfill a mission. At the top of the organization leadership includes directing others while at lower levels it is accomplished through influencing others. Your company’s leadership performance has a lot to do with how much the organization can accomplish in a given amount of time.
Collaboration. Collaboration is the ability to work productively with others. At the low end of performance, collaboration provides the ability to effectively break down complex tasks and distribute the parts across a group of people or organizations. At higher levels of performance collaboration creates organizational synergy, producing a performance boost where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Some organizations might require a higher degree of collaboration than others but every organization needs to collaborate at some level.
Adaptability. At no time in our history has adaptability been so critical. Products, services, organizations, companies, and even whole industries come and go in a heartbeat. Adaptability is the organization’s ability to give up the existing skills, processes, and technologies that have led to its past success and create new skills and approaches that ensure success tomorrow. Organizations need to be adaptable just to survive and highly adaptable if they expect to thrive.
Creativity. The problems we face today are much more complex and time-critical than those of the past. They often cannot be solved by brute force alone. Creativity describes the organization’s ability to think differently and allow different thinking to influence day to day and strategic decisions. At the low end of the performance curve organizations can be trapped in tradition and best practices, unable to solve persistent problems. At the high end they are often challenged to prioritize among numerous new ideas.
Innovation. Innovation goes beyond creativity to turn creative ideas into reality. It is the ability to translate a good concept into a compelling value proposition that others are willing to support and invest in. When innovation ability is high, companies go beyond innovative products to design innovative processes, organizational structures, management practices, and employment engagement approaches.
The bottom line:_______________________________________________________________________________________________
These five capabilities permeate the entire organization and every individual. Functional units can be established to act as centers of excellence that support and encourage the development of these capabilities, but that is not where the value resides. Yet each of these capabilities is essential for a high-performing organization.
What other capabilities would you put in this category? Are they in your capability model?
Tagged: Business Architecture, Capabilities 
