What are the “Red Queens” of Social Impact?
The term “Red Queen” is often used metaphorically in business to refer to a dynamic competitive environment where organisations must continually adapt and improve just to maintain their current position.
The Red Queen represents the idea that businesses and organisations are in constant competition with their rivals, and they must exert significant effort just to keep up.
Much like the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass” who had to run as fast as possible just to stay in the same place, organisations in a competitive marketplace are driven by the whims of continually needing to innovate and improve their products, services and strategies to maintain their market position.
However, the prior decisions, strategies, and historical factors of an organisation can create a kind of inertia, making it difficult for organisations to adopt new practices or change paths entirely, even when more beneficial or innovative options may be available (or required).
Established businesses for example can find themselves “locked in” to existing paths due to factors like invested resources, organisational culture, and the need to stay competitive within the existing market system. This constant jostling makes it increasingly difficult for organisations to invest in pursuing true, long-term systemic changes. Instead, organisations tend to opt for incremental, short-term, and often piecemeal changes. This enables organisations to absorb current risk, without truly changing their rules of engagement, or challenging the status quo of our broken economic systems (from which many continue to benefit).
Red Queens of Impact
In a rapidly changing world where the focus is shifting towards addressing global challenges like climate change, systemic unemployment, and ushering in the Just and Green transition, established organisations face significant hurdles when trying to adapt and actively contribute to systemic change.
Real systemic change often requires a significant departure from established norms. Yet, the constant pursuit of short-term gains and immediate competition can obscure the development of a clear systemic change vision. Furthermore, stakeholders benefiting from the current system may resist or co-opt transformation, resulting in resistance and exploitation. For instance, organisations adopting incremental, piecemeal approaches to their social impact commitments in response to emerging market opportunities risk becoming ‘Red Queens of Impact.’
Many organisations struggle to enact meaningful changes when their entrenched practices remain deeply rooted. So, despite professed commitments from large companies to systemic initiatives, like climate action pledges, it’s wise to approach these efforts with skepticism.
There is no blank slate for doing things differently, and organisations are required to scrutinize their entire business and operational practices, including prior decisions, strategies, and historical factors, to avoid perpetuating the ‘Red Queens of impact’ phenomenon.
Navigating Path Dependence: Strategies for Informed Systemic Decision-Making
To triage path dependence and make more systems-informed strategic decisions, businesses and other organisations can follow these steps:
1. Conduct a Path Dependence Assessment:
- Analyse the historical decisions, practices, and norms that have shaped the organisation’s current operations and strategies.
- Identify areas where path dependence may be strong and affect the organisation’s ability to adapt.
2. Understand the Systemic Context:
- Develop a deep understanding of the broader systems in which the business operates, including market dynamics, industry trends, and regulatory environments.
- Identify feedback loops, interdependencies, and potential tipping points within these systems.
3. Scenario Planning:
- Create scenarios that explore different possible futures for the business within the context of larger systems.
- Consider how changes in external factors could impact on the company’s path and existing practices.
4. Identify Key Leverage Points:
- Determine where the company has the greatest potential to influence or change its trajectory within the system.
- Focus efforts on these key leverage points to introduce strategic changes.
5. Embrace Innovation and Experimentation:
- Create an innovative ecosystem that encourages experimentation and the exploration of new ideas.
- Allocate resources to innovation initiatives that can help the business adapt and evolve.
6. Embrace Change Leadership and Alternative Collaborations:
- Develop strong change management capabilities within the organisation to facilitate shifts in culture and practices.
- Foster leadership that champions systems thinking and encourages strategic flexibility.
- Collaborate with partners, startups, or other organisations that can provide fresh perspectives and innovative solutions and seek alliances that can help the business navigate its path-dependent challenges.
7. Regularly Monitor, (re-)Evaluate and Adjust:
- Continuously assess the effectiveness of strategic decisions in light of evolving circumstances and feedback.
- Stay engaged with emerging trends, disruptive technologies, and changes in the competitive landscape.
- Be willing to adjust strategies and pivot when necessary to stay aligned with changing systems.
By following these steps, organisations can mitigate the negative impacts of path dependence and make more informed, systems-aware decisions that allow them to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing environment.
Carsis Consulting support organisations to become more systems-minded in how they work, and to create innovative and impactful solutions that create shared value. We have a series of free resources on our site to get you going on your impact journey, including toolkits as well as an opensource Impact ChatBot to help you explore new questions and topics.
