You know that feeling you get when you’re trying to put together a piece of furniture, and after looking for fifteen minutes, you find exactly the right-sized ratchet in your ratchet set? Or when you find a pair of tweezers small enough to pull the splinter out of your finger? Finding the right tools for the job can be hard, but it’s worth the search.
Ad hoc in Latin means “for this” – as in, “for this particular purpose, case, or situation.” The term has other connotations, such as throwing something together spur of the moment. But at the core, we are talking about something designed for a particular use. An adhocracy takes this concept to the next level by using it as a foundation for running a business.
Adhocracy definition
An adhocracy is a business approach based on taking action. It leans into taking risks, relies on trial and error in decision-making, and fosters a strong sense of independence. Known for its adaptability, innovation, and creativity, an adhocracy creates policies and committees to deal with particular issues and disbands them when there’s no longer a need. This makes for a dynamic, exciting, and potentially disorienting work environment. But, when run well, an adhocracy can greatly benefit many industries.
What is adhocracy culture? Defining characteristics
An adhocracy culture is a culture defined by key traits that emphasize outcomes over procedure. But what does an adhocracy culture focus on? Let’s take a look at an adhocracy organizational structure and a few defining characteristics to see how they work.
Flexibility and adaptability
Since individual employees have the latitude to make decisions as they see fit for the betterment of the company, they are much more adaptable and flexible. You don’t have policies or chains of command to consult before adapting to new situations. So, if a problem comes up and your employee knows how to deal with it, they will deal with it. No waiting for red tape, no slogging through paperwork, just getting the work done.
Innovation and creativity
In an adhocracy, there’s a higher tolerance for failure than in other models. Everyone understands you are free to experiment and take risks. It’s a culture that welcomes mistakes and sees them as key learning tools. With these built-in safety rails, there’s a lot more emphasis on original thinking and problem-solving – a huge factor in modern business.
Decentralization
In a well-run adhocracy, you’re not going to find a boss, manager, or underling. Instead, you’ll find a lot of people working together as a team, all making decisions based on their own experience and experimentation. In this culture, companies give employees a lot of autonomy and responsibility. For this to work, employees need to be able to coordinate and communicate clearly and effectively. This means giving them the time, space, and tools they need to present and discuss ideas to make the best decisions.
Goal-oriented
True to the concept of ad hoc, businesses using this cultural model focus on achieving specific goals for a specific project. Rarely will you find an ongoing committee or a sub-organization that has already served its purpose. Structures tend to be temporary and teams project-based. The focus is on the destination rather than how you got there.
Benefits and drawbacks of an adhocracy
You can likely already see places where an adhocracy would be a huge advantage – and perhaps a few places where it wouldn’t work so well. Let’s take a look at a few key benefits and drawbacks.
Key benefit: Continuous improvement
Better innovation and problem-solving are an integral part of an adhocracy structure, which in turn leads to a culture of continuous improvement. When workers are encouraged to try new things and face complex issues head-on, they are constantly improving their skills and gaining valuable experience.
Key benefit: Employee engagement
Since taking action is the core principle of an adhocracy, sitting on the sidelines isn’t an option for anyone. This approach means higher levels of employee engagement across the board. Notably, 81% of business leaders agree that engaged employees perform better and are more productive, making this a significant advantage.
However, there are a few common problems with an adhocracy as well.
Key drawback: Higher demands on employees
Until workers adjust to the added responsibility in an adhocracy culture, there’s a solid chance the lack of coordination and control will cause problems. This can lead to inconsistencies and inefficiencies. Once you are past the transition into an adhocracy, there is still the increased stress and workload that comes with the higher expectations and responsibilities of all employees. An adhocracy environment is fast-paced and demanding and requires everyone involved to have great time management and organizational skills.
Key drawback: Lack of stability
Another common problem within an adhocracy culture is difficulty in maintaining long-term stability. The strength of an adhocracy is its ever-changing nature, but it can be hard to tackle long-term projects if your team is in the habit of changing gears every few months.
These are real problems, but with the right preparation and tools, you can get your office successfully running an adhocracy.
Adhocracy culture examples
Given its focus on results and adaptability, many companies have seen huge success implementing adhocracy in their industries. An adhocracy works best when an industry has a single well-defined goal but no clear way to reach it. Some of the world’s best-known organizations illustrate this point well.
NASA
Originally, NASA was a purely goal-driven adhocracy. President Kennedy set the goal to reach the moon by the end of the 1960s, and NASA took it from there. There was no clear way to get to the moon, no established track record of successful space travel, and no standard operating procedures. That made it perfect for an adhocracy – they literally had to make it up as they went along. Without the incredible amount of innovation, adaptability, and experimentation that this structure allows, we probably wouldn’t have made it to the moon.
Apple
Keeping with the trend of innovation, it’s not surprising that Apple has a reputation for its adhocracy culture. When Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997, he laid off all the general managers of all the business units and combined all business units into one organization. He decentralized the entire company in a day. That structure still holds. Individual product divisions like iPhones, computers, and software operate almost like their own companies and are independent aside from the authority of current CEO Tim Cook. This structure has served Apple well and led it to become the tech powerhouse we know today.
Tesla
Tesla leans into core principles that align closely with an adhocracy. Like NASA, Tesla formed to reach a goal no one had reached before – creating a profitable electric car company. Their core principle of “Do The Impossible” highlights this goal-driven philosophy, and their devotion to constant innovation and flexibility has served them well in the auto industry.
When to implement an adhocracy
While an adhocracy can have a huge positive impact on your business, it isn’t a catch-all solution. Sometimes, it may only be applicable in certain subsections of your company. And in some industries that need a lot of stability, it might not be a good option. These examples can help you know when adopting an adhocracy makes a lot of sense.
When you work in a dynamic industry
Any industry regularly upended by a news report, a change in pop culture, or a new invention is a great candidate for an adhocracy. Media, fashion, and technology are all examples of this kind of industry. What makes an adhocracy so effective here is its ability to adapt faster than almost any other organizational structure. A competitor’s product release or a celebrity’s ill-advised social media post can mean you have to reinvent your business in a few days. An adhocracy allows you to do just that.
When you need to innovate
While some industries require constant innovation, others only need it in certain areas. For example, suppose you run an outdoor supply company trying to develop a new marketing campaign. Your marketing department could benefit from adopting an adhocracy, but it might not be a good approach for the rest of your company. This limited approach means you get the advantage of more innovation in your marketing department without taking big risks with other divisions of the company.
When you have goal-oriented short-term projects
Projects with a limited duration and specific goals are great candidates for an adhocracy. Crisis responses, new product launches, and event planning require nimble teams of decision-makers who can deal with situations as they happen. The decentralization of an adhocracy lets employees deal with problems without having to go through multiple layers of bureaucracy.
When you have highly skilled and motivated employees
An adhocracy prizes taking action – which means you encourage your employees to go with their gut. When you have workers with good instincts and want to try new things, you can leverage that into great Innovation and problem-solving. Companies like research institutions, consulting firms, and creative agencies all rely on the skills of individuals to uncover insights and create content. An adhocracy encourages that kind of experimentation.
How to implement an adhocracy
By now, you might have realized that an adhocracy would work great for your business – or at least for parts of your company. So now what? Here are a few steps you can take to start shifting your company culture towards an adhocracy.
Encourage innovation
It might sound a little counterintuitive, but let your employees know it’s okay to mess up. Reward risk-taking behavior, even if it doesn’t lead to success. We’re not saying blow your budget on the first idea that comes along, but make sure employees have a safety net so they can throw ideas out there without much hesitation. Another major factor is creating dedicated spaces for brainstorming ideas and maximizing collaboration with others. Providing interactive displays, comfortable seating, and a relaxed atmosphere go a long way in encouraging innovation.
Promote collaboration
Taking action is the foundation of an adhocracy, and in most industries, people have to work together to get anything done. Help employees to see themselves as autonomous, but remind them they can get more done as a team. Do this by creating opportunities for employees to work together and by providing collaboration tools and technologies to help in these kinds of projects.
Let employees make their own decisions
Give employees the option of remote work or part-time hours and a supportive and inclusive work environment. Let them know you’re not going to micromanage them. This requires a lot of trust in your employees, so make sure you know they will get the job done before you make changes. It’s on you to provide the tools you need for successful remote and hybrid work meetings to meet their goals. This level of freedom also heavily leans into the decentralization of an adhocracy. When employees don’t have a manager looking over their shoulders, they feel free to innovate, take risks, and focus on their goals.
Look at the outcomes
Think back to math class when you got your grade docked even though you got the right answer because you didn’t ‘show your work.’ In an adhocracy, strict procedures don’t constrain employees. You and your team are free to reach your goal in the way that works the best for you; it doesn’t matter how. So reward your employees based on reaching their goals, not on how they did it. Use metrics that look at how the employees contribute to the organization’s success and provide employees with ample feedback to explain how their actions impacted the company.
Start building an adhocracy today
Flexibility, innovation, decentralization, and a focus on goals make adhocracy a great option for many industries. Changing company culture is a lot of work, but if your workers buy into it, it can be a massive benefit to your company. One of the first steps you can take is to change your work environment by installing technology to encourage collaboration.
Consider Promethean’s free demo to see how an interactive display is an important tool in reshaping your workplace culture.
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