Theme 4 - Organisational fitness
Organisational fitness is the readiness of the systems and processes within and across organisations to deliver improvements e.g. resources, culture and strategy.
Benefits:
- Optimal capacity for adaptation and implementation of change at all times
- Efficiency advantages: implementing change is relatively simple
- Competitive advantage: the organisation is capable of adapting quickly to new market opportunities
- Time gains, allowing increased focus on the core business
Key features of a “successful” fit include:
- Keeps a strategic view
- Has a structure that helps rather than hinders
- Creates a culture which energises people at all levels in the system
- Rewards people for what they know as well as what they do
- Allows people for what they know as well as what they do
- Allows people to make decisions because of knowledge, not seniority
- Manages conflict (doesn’t suppress it)
- Rewards co-operation
- Values individuals and differences
- Relates well to pressure
- Learns from mistakes
- Communicates openly
(Taken from Impact Consulting)
What MHIP did
As described in Module 1 Identifying Drivers the MHIP Pilot sites undertook MHIP for a wide variety of reasons. Resources were given to support the implementation of MHIP and support was provided through the national service improvement team at CSIP/NIMHE and the client managers at the Regional Development Centres.
For this programme “Organisational Fitness” applied to a wide variety of organisations across each partnership. Thus one area in the “areas for improvement” was dedicated to organisational fitness. Further information on this can be seen in Theme 3 Outcome Measures
To see the learning from MHIP on “What actions need to be taken to develop organisational fitness within partner organisations?” click on organisational fitness top tips
There was no generic evaluation of organisational fitness but this was reviewed in the external evaluation, which will be available shortly.