The metaphor "organization as organism" is quite recurrent in my social media bubble. It envisions an organization as a living organism, constantly evolving to respond to the everchanging environment in which they operate.
It's a powerful metaphor, indeed.
This morning, I was reflecting on the fact that my body, a living organism, is made of billions of cells glued together to create my unique shape. So, there's an intelligence within each cell and one holding all the cells together to shape me.
Similarly, in the "organization as organism" metaphor, an organization is made of plenty of cells - the people - combined to create a unique shape.
The idea of this metaphor is that the organism can change and adapt to respond to the changes in the environment.
But how much?
All the cells in my body are replaced sooner or later. Yet, my shape doesn't change much. I can move, bend, and stretch, but my basic form does not change. I can put on weight or become leaner - the last one is harder - and I am getting older over the years. But my basic shape it's the same since I became an adult.
So, maybe when we say that an organization is an organism, we mean that it can move, bend and stretch, but it can't change its basic form. Its bone structure. A T-rex will always have short arms.
May that be why some initiatives to reshape organizations fail to deliver the desired results?