Company DNA
My parents are molecular biologists, and so growing up the names Francis Watson and James Crick were a part of our family's vocabulary. As an adult, I realized that these names are not well known, although they should be, for they made the seminal scientific advancement (probably) of human history, the discovery of human DNA.
Crick and Watson made their discovery in the early 1950s and subsequently won the Nobel Prize. In the 70 years since then, remarkable things have happened in terms of our understanding of DNA, including the mapping of the entire human genome. Things like 23andMe, the eradication and combating of different diseases, and identifying criminals based on DNA evidence are all outgrowths of their initial discovery and the subsequent work. And this all works for one pretty straight forward reason, which is that individual human DNA is very consistent. It does not change. As we tell our kids, you get what you get and you don't get upset.
A company has DNA also -- traits and characteristics that make it who it is. But, company DNA is actually a lot more complicated.
Company DNA is made up of a lot of different factors including the DNA of all the humans who work at the company, plus some company philosophies, all of your policies, procedures, protocols and all of the choices that you made along the way as you build your culture and your experience. Those all go into your company DNA. It can be hard to understand and quantify but it does absolutely exist. Right now it’s just information in different places and documents, in emails and in institutional knowledge. Our goal is to turn your company DNA into data.
There's another thing about company DNA that's different than human DNA, which is that it's also dynamic. Company DNA evolves constantly. Unlike human DNA, which is basically the same from the moment that you're born until the moment that you die, company DNA is changing by the second. As people join and leave your organization, as your organization's experience changes and evolves, as things happen positively or negatively, your company DNA is always in flux. And so it's incumbent upon the company not only to understand what's in your DNA but also to understand the ways that it is changing.
A big part of what Holistic is trying to do is to help companies map their DNA by understanding what goes into it and the power of being able to change. The fact that it changes is a blessing and a curse. It's a curse because it's impossible to get the right answer consistently because the right answer changes at a moment's notice. But it's a blessing because it can change. So if you find yourself in a situation where you're not happy with something or something needs to evolve, it's only a matter of time and will before you can actually have it evolve. That's Holistic's focus. How do we help companies understand what goes into their DNA and then evolve it intentionally, and prepare themselves to react to changes in their DNA that they were not expecting or did not want?
To find out how Holistic can help you turn your company’s DNA into data, contact us directly.