What's in a Capability?

Impact, that's what - 

Capability building is a critical executive skill—one that determines how fast and far an organization can scale. Yet many leaders default to single fixes: a new process, a reorganization, a tool. The problem: organizational capability is interconnected. A misapplied patch can backfire. When you adopt a structured framework to assess where you are and map next steps, you unlock a real advantage—the ability to multiply impact faster. A good model expands your options and improves the odds of durable, scalable improvement.A Better Capability Model

A good model should make a capability more concrete, and analyzable. This enables both analysis of capabilities as they exist in the field, and provides a design template for making changes. At Growth Arc, we use a proven model that conceives of an organizational capability as a series of multiple components that work together as an integrated whole. The integrated whole is anchored by the Desired Performance, or what the organization is trying to achieve in concrete terms. This requires defining performance metrics.

The capability can then be mapped as a series of interconnected assets and activities, which include:

• Processes & Activities

• Methods & Enabling Ideas (tools, frameworks, and approaches)

• Organizational Structure

• Governance

• Roles and individual Competencies, 

• Institutional Assets (like databases and physical resources)

Here’s a simple example using a Manufacturing Quality capability.

This model provides a framework for multiple activities.

1. Assess current state in concrete, specific terms.

2. Benchmark or define maturity points. (In other words, what does better look like in progressive stages of improvement?)

3. Allow specification of a scope for improvement initiatives. 

It can also serve to highlight how single point fixes become problematic. Reorganization might provide for sets of new activities, but does no good if those Activities or even new Methods aren’t also developed. Or we often forget that all organizations need Oversight activities, and we have to specify what those are. Improvement initiatives need to become multi-faceted. The good news is that larger impact can often be made with smaller initiatives as long as they address all the aspects of the capability improvement.

Actioning the Insight

Here’s an exercise that will be a first step in seeing your organizational output in capability form. Try to map one aspect of your organization in this capability format, listing the elements of capability out discretely. Make sure you start with the Objectives or Performance you currently are meeting today (not your aspiration, but the real numbers). Then go down the list and think about what items are in each. Be as specific as you can. Pay special attention to the facets that you haven’t thought about before. Work Process and Org Charts are usually well-known so move to the other ones. For example:

• What are the oversight activities currently performed?

• What are the assets (physical, intellectual) that are employed and what is their state?

• What are the methodologies or principles upon which the work processes are based?

• What are the individual skills or competencies that are required to perform these activities?

If this model resonates with you, hit REPLY or leave a comment and tell me why. In other newsletters, I’ll review benchmarking and designing new capabilities, as well as factors to consider to implement capability upgrades.

Until next week,

Kendall -

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