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The Company’s Story: Organizations are Always Developing

Organizational Development research and literature describe the normal and predictable stages of development and deterioration that any organization will experience as part of the organizational story. The leadership challenge is knowing when to step back and reflect on the sequence in that developing story. Vision leads to mission. Mission leads to strategy. Strategy leads to structure. Structure leads to staffing. Staffing leads to systems. This sequence is both dynamic and linear at the same time. Think of it in reverse order. Systems are the result of staffing. Staffing is the result of structure. Structure is the result of strategy. Strategy is the result of mission. Mission is the result of vision. Vision, mission, and values rarely, if ever, change, but everything else in the sequence keeps changing dynamically. If leaders do not anticipate the normal and predictable challenges in each stage of organizational development, then ignoring needed changes in the strategy, structure, staffing, and systems will eventually contribute to organizational atrophy and ineffectiveness.