As change is increasing in both frequency and intensity, it is the major strategic challenge for organisations to become more adaptable, flexible and welcoming of change. The initial fundamental question is: 
Are we resilient to meet the increasing opportunities and threats of our commercial world?
 
To answer this, the organisation should recognise 3 categories of change, namely:

1. Closed change’ which is short term in nature and for which the causes and solutions are known
2. Contained change’ whereby the change is largely governed by probability and prediction
3. Open change’ which is more long term in nature, cannot be predicted and is characterised by intuition and trial and error

Too often, organisations do not recognise that these 3 categories need to be addressed differently. They try to control open change with the WRONG tools. They focus on:

• Highly visible short term ‘fixes’
• Inappropriate measures and targets causing unforeseen impacts
• Counter productive management and leadership styles which undermine group effectiveness, initiative and learning
• Localised and often reactive actions divorced from cross functional cooperation

 Open change is about unknowable futures. Strategic development as practised by most organisations, does not work. Long range plans are useless as a guide to management decisions as strategic choices are largely opportunistic. Strategy should proceed along broad guidelines based on intent in order to allow for opportunity. Acting on strategic intent depends on:

• Coherence…of staff to allow them to be creative and flexible
• Innovation…which gives organisational permission to try things
• Resilience…organisational responsiveness to market signals and its ability to overcome its own inertia. A resilient organisation is a ‘way of life’ and starts off types 1 and 2 changes
  

Key Performance can very quickly assess any organisation’s ability to deliver coherence, innovation and resilience. It has a blend of consultancy and software analysis which accurately pinpoints issues and facilitates improvement.