Why Analytical and Adaptive Capacities?

The concept of analytical and adaptive capacities builds on existing practices such as strategic planning and organisational learning. Originally developed for military purposes strategic planning deals with the overall identity, direction, goals and objectives of an organisation. This model, based on a rationalist economic approach, is now being criticised as too reliant on pre-determined outcomes, a ‘knowable’ environment and a predictable future3. Planning, deciding, monitoring and controlling the ensuing process may be all that is needed in situations where change is relatively straightforward and easy to predict4. However, ‘when you are facing very difficult issues or dilemmas, when very different people need to align in a very complex setting, and when the future might be different from the past, a different process is required’5. Those CSOs involved in development are often engaged in processes of social transformation and are therefore inherently facing complex situations and trying to create a future which is different from the past. There is therefore a need to explore different ways of conceptualising strategic thinking, action, reflection and learning to better reflect the open-ended and unpredictable nature of development.
The process of analysis and adaptation described in this paper constitutes a non-linear, flexible approach which recognises that organisations operate in complex environments within which they have many dynamic interrelationships. The process is closely linked to the theory and practice of organisational learning as a developmental process that integrates thinking and doing6. Building the capacity of organisations to analyse and adapt can enable them to consciously and purposefully:
• reflect on and make sense of their own reality;
• recognise themselves as an integral part of the whole, i.e. as dynamically interconnected with the wider environment;
• move beyond pre-determined frameworks and habits of action7;
• respond proactively to events as they emerge; and
• influence and create alternative realities.
But what do we mean by analytical and adaptive capacities?