The evolution of the global economy - increasingly competitive, inter-connected, and knowledge-based - has simultaneously enabled and forced humans to become smarter and more efficient.  These new economic rules are redefining the nature of work and the workplace.
 
In previous newsletters, we have argued that this evolution is increasingly generating vital competitive advantages for the "worthy organization" (that is, an organization worthy of the best efforts of its people, during both economic booms and busts).
 
Biology has taught us that successful species are able to adapt genetically over time in response to changing external circumstances.  Organizations too must modify their own DNA (or "culture") as they seek sustainable profitability in a quickly changing economic environment.  Fortunately, organizations (unlike species confronting the forces of natural selection) can choose to make the necessary adaptive changes consciously and purposefully.

To begin its evolution toward becoming a worthy organization, an organization needs to develop new systems that measure and manage people as assets, rather than relying on current practices that measure people only as costs.
 
Failure to do so puts an organization at risk of attempting to navigate the new economic landscape while still following the rules that governed the old one.  That's an evolutionary formula for extinction.