Building future-proof & resilient organizations in a turbulent world: The Why of DIGICISU

Changing paradigms demand new ways to approach value creation, problem-solving and innovations. In growing uncertainty and complexity of the modern world we need to understand data, sense changing contexts and analyze the nature of the problem in order to approach the solution in the most optimal way. Simultaneously organizations and individuals need to remain resilient and agile in the face of changing economic, environmental and social conditions.

In this in-depth article I will go deep into why mastering things like data-driven decision making, sustainability and Agile-Lean development is more important than ever. I will also explain how they work together multidisciplinarily and in practice to improve organization's (and why not also individual's) performance, resilience, agility and innovation capabilities.

And most importantly; Why they are not just buzzwords.

Unfortunately, I still meet many experts and decision-makers who think that for example organizational resilience, agility and sustainability are all just "buzzwords with no meaning or content".

Well, let me ask you some honest questions:

• How you or your organization has survived the latest macroenomic turbulences that have been going on since 2019? I bet you're pretty much still in the process of recovery and struggle to anticipate what's going to happen (I think we all do).
• How fast your organization recovered back to status quo? I bet most of the organizations haven't recovered at all. I go as far as saying that your expectation of returning back to "business-as-usual" will never happen (and sustainability wise that's not only a negative thing).
• Do you have data-driven decision-making processes and tools to navigate your way back from chaos to clarity after a major disruption? Would you even know where to access reliable data or insights at the right time and in the right place?
• If your C-level leadership board is forced to; How fast can your organization completely transform business, service or product strategy to an entirely different direction, if markets or operative environment would require it?
• Are you trying to anticipate or forecast the effects of disruptions to your organization in some mid- or long-term time horizon (and building capabilities accordingly)?
• Have you evaluated your leadership's, culture's or technology architecture's abilities to adapt to a major change?

I bet you had some uncertainty of answering most of these questions.

How DIGICISU plays a part in potentially helping with some of these challenges?

The DIGICISU Framework aims to fix a mismatch between impact-driven sustainability transition and business-driven technology development. DIGI comes from the terms #Data2Insights and #Growth2Impact , while CISU refers to sustainability and circular economy & design. Overall, the order of data, insights, growth, and impact reflects the idea that?data and insights are the foundation upon which growth and impact should be built and that growth and impact are interconnected and mutually reinforcing (in a good or a bad way). The word "Sisu" is actually a Finnish word and a synonym of resilience; An extraordinary determination in the face of extreme adversity and courage that is presented in situations where success is hard to achieve, even when major setbacks are faced.

Sustainable resilience?in?business?context?is not only about having?the?capacity?to?respond?quickly?and?effectively?to?unexpected?events,?but also about being?able?to?anticipate?and?prepare?for?potential?future?disruptions.?Mixing sustainability into resilience involves developing strategies to reduce risk and helps businesses to remain competitive in the long-term without compromising on future generations. This could involve implementing growth strategies that use sustainable resources, choosing responsible partners to work with or choosing resource efficient and eco-friendly options in choosing tools or materials for optimizing production.

Technological examples of resilience could be designing architectures without a single point of failure if an unexpected shutdown takes place or stress-testing systems for cyber attacks and other external shocks that could cause our tech stack to fall apart. Social resilience on the other hand refers to individual's or group's abilities to efficiently reorganize, make decisions, motivate each other and internalize new useful information when facing major disruptive changes.

Let's go more into practice:

I will start from justifying how important it is to analyze data and collect information from the situation at hand in order to determine the framing of the problem-solving and decision-making context.

For this I apply Cynefin Framework, which is the absolute core of DIGICISU Framework:

The Cynefin framework is a decision-making tool developed by Dave Snowden to help organizations make better decisions. It is based on the idea that different types of problems require different approaches to decision-making. The framework divides problems into five distinct domains: simple, complicated, complex, chaotic, and disorder. Each domain has its own set of decision-making strategies and tools that can be used to address the problem. The framework also provides guidance on how to identify which domain a problem falls into and how to apply the appropriate decision-making strategies for that domain.

The benefits of using the Cynefin framework for decision-making include improved clarity and understanding of the problem, increased efficiency in decision-making and better alignment between decisions and organizational goals. Also it can help organizations identify areas where they need to focus their efforts and resources and it supports in developing a data-driven culture, in general.

In practice, in simple and complicated domains the approach in data-driven decision making is analytical where problems are reasonably linear by nature and volume of parameters, so just identifying trends and patterns from historical data should be enough to solve a problem. Experimental data-driven decision making on the other hand is a process of testing different solutions to a problem and then using the results of those tests to inform decisions. It's basically about "baking" data into the decision-making which helps to identify emerging insights for course of action. Knowingly major global corporations like Netflix are utilizing Cynefin in their data-driven decision making.

To utilize Cynefin Framework further:

After understanding the decision-making domain, the tools of information management, systems thinking, Lean-Agile development and sustainable design can help companies improve their insights-driven decision making, performance and resource efficiency in a number of ways.

Next I will give some practical examples of each.

Systems thinking involves taking a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving, which can help companies better understand the complex systems and dynamics that impact their operations. By using tools like cause-and-effect diagrams and process maps, companies can identify key drivers and leverage points for improvement and develop strategies that consider the long-term impacts of their decisions.

• Use case 1: A retail company is experiencing declining sales and customer satisfaction. Using systems thinking tools like process maps and root cause analysis the company is able to identify that the problem is due to inefficient and disconnected processes in their supply chain, which are causing delays and errors in fulfilling orders. The company is able to develop a more holistic, sustainable and integrated approach to managing their supply chain, which leads to improved efficiency, customer satisfaction and sales.

Lean-Agile development is a flexible and iterative approach to product development that emphasizes continuous learning and rapid prototyping. The Lean side of things also emphasizes measurement. By adopting Lean-Agile practices companies can quickly adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs and build products that are more relevant and valuable.

• Use case 2: A software company is struggling to keep up with rapidly changing customer needs and market trends. With Lean-Agile development practices like continuous delivery and user-centered design, the company is able to deliver new features and updates to their software more quickly and efficiently, while also maintaining a high level of quality. Also supporting data-driven decision making with Cynefin framework could help in faster framing of problems and choosing the best actions to solve them. As a result, the company is able to better meet the needs of its customers, be more adaptive and stay competitive in the market.

Sustainability is increasingly becoming a key concern for businesses, because both consumers and investors demand more environmentally and socially responsible products and practices. By incorporating sustainability into their operations, companies can reduce their environmental impact, improve their brand reputation and build long-term resilience.

• Use case 3: A manufacturing company is facing pressure from consumers and investors to reduce its environmental impact. By implementing sustainability practices like energy-efficient production processes, recycled materials, and renewable energy, the company is able to reap many benefits; Reduce its carbon footprint, lower costs, improve resource efficiency of operations and brand reputation. Also potential investors looking impact indicators to justify investments should be happy about these improvements.

Circular design is a framework for creating products and systems that are restorative and regenerative rather than extractive and disposable. Approaches include redesign, reuse, remanufacture, resource sharing and recycling, to name a few. Companies who adopt circular design principles can create products that are more durable, easier to repair or reuse while reducing waste and unnecessary resource consumption.

• Use case 3: A consumer electronics company is facing growing concerns about the environmental impact of its products. By adopting circular design principles, the company is able to redesign its products to be more durable and repairable, reducing waste and resource consumption. The company is also able to offer repair and refurbishment services, which helps to extend the life of its products and creates new revenue streams.

In the next section I'd like to move focus a bit more from maximizing business value to sustainability and explain how I see that DIGICISU Framework can help organizations better reap benefits of sustainability transition.

Those of you from the sustainability sphere should know about conducting impact assesments. I think these experts often forget that they are not hired to moralize organizations on their wrong doings, but rather to help them identify the value of positive impact for improvements in efficiency or performance.

Since I talked about resilience quite a lot so far, I actually argue that resilience and impact are just two sides of the same coin; Impact?is?the?measure of how much a shock or stress affects a system or individual,?while?resilience?is?the?measure of how well a system or individual can recover from the shock or stress.? Impact?and?resilience?are?both?important?for?understanding?how?a?system?or?individual?will?respond?to?change?and?how?they?can?be?better?prepared?for?future?shocks?or?stresses. In these times of high uncertainty I would argue that it is essential to understand both of these concepts and how to apply their principles into practice.

Lastly, I want to give some examples on how data-driven decision making, Agile-Lean development and sustainability can be combined in a number of ways to support the development of sustainable products and services.?

Here are some examples of how these concepts can be integrated in practice:

1. Information management can be used to support the agile development of sustainable products and services. This can include?the use of data and analytics to identify opportunities for sustainability, the creation of data-driven sustainability targets and metrics and the development of systems for tracking and reporting on sustainability performance.?Information management can also guide us in making more sustainable choices in our enterprise, solution, software or data architectures.
2. Agile development methodologies can be used to support the implementation of sustainable practices within organizations, which also improve our capabilities to respond to disruptive changes. Common methods include?the use of rapid prototyping and iterative testing to develop sustainable solutions, the integration of sustainability considerations into agile development processes and the adoption of agile principles to drive sustainable innovations.
3. Sustainability can be integrated?into the information management process to ensure that the right information is available to support the development of sustainable products and services at the right time and in the right place.?This can include?the development of sustainability-focused data collection and analysis processes, the creation of sustainability-focused information systems, and the integration of sustainability considerations into information management policies and procedures.
4. When organizations track and measure the?impact?of?their?activities they can?identify?areas?where?to reduce waste, increase resource efficiency, and invest in renewable energy sources.?Additionally,?by?investing?in?circular?economy?initiatives,?companies?can?create?a?more?resilient and decentralized?business?models?that?are?better?able?to?withstand economic downturns and other external shocks.?Not forgetting circular design choices in production and utilizing waste & production sidestreams for new products.

Taking some of these actions can play a major role in staying?resilient and competitive in the long-term. Turning?data?into?insights?and?connecting?growth?to?impact?allows?companies?to identify benefits of sustainable development and most importantly to act on them for positive impact.

I very much hope that this article gave you some inspiration on building more resilient and sustainable future, whether it's about you, your organization or the society around you.

Here's a small closing rant to wrap things up: