SEO and Adhocracy (#119)
Today’s post is a fun one and a little different. Way back in Post #48 (August 2020), I wrote about the Four Types of Corporate Culture. This article was based upon the University of Michigan business professors Robert E. Quinn’s and Kim S. Cameron’s Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) and their research on the types of organizational culture. Their study determined that there were four predominant company cultures: clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy. While each organization has a dominant culture, every organization exhibits its own unique combination of the four types.
Search Engine Optimization
Blog Post #48 is one of my most popular blog posts, drawing 291 visitors to the web page since its launch. In the last thirty days, 46 people have came and checked the article out. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines like Google, Safari, and Bing. I track my rankings on Google since it is the largest. Interestingly, my average position in Google Search for “adhocracy culture” is about 16th overall. In laymen’s terms, this means that the result that leads to the TFCG article is typically 16 answers down on the second page of a Google search. For me, this is one of my highest ranked search terms.
As some of you know, I am a little competitive. I would like to be be #1 in the adhocracy search and dominate a very small corner of the internet, but I need your help to get there. So I am going to run an experiment for the next 4 days — April 29 to May 2. So, go to Google here, type in “adhocracy culture,” and click on the TFCG link that shows up in the search (you may need to go to the second page). If you really want to help out with the experiment, do the same thing on your phone, your iPad, and your computer. Using Google to search is best, but other search engines help. Thanks in advance!
The search and subsequent visit to the website should drive TFCG’s position on “adhocracy culture” up the ladder in Google Search. I’ll give an update on Post #127 on how the experiment went — I can tell you how far up the ladder I moved for “adhocracy culture,” the number of visitors to the blog post over the four days, and more.
Thanks again for the help with the SEO experiment and my efforts to be #1 in one thing on a very small part of Google. If you’d like to learn more on adhocracy, keep reading below.
Adhocracy
The base of this culture is the concept of “ad hoc.” An adhocracy culture is a dynamic and innovative environment where employees are willing to take chances and leaders are typically seen as inspirational innovators willing to challenge assumptions and take risks. An adhocracy favors flexibility while staying externally focused. This type of culture likes to “do it first.” The core values of the culture are change and agility.
Striping it back to its essence, adhocracy culture describes an organization that runs by the seat of its pants. Reactive and welcoming to change, leaders encourage teams to turn projects and goals on their head when necessary and at lightning speed. Where traditional hierarchical companies build silos, stovepipes, and systems for defense, adhocracy embraces change and instability. An adhocracy promotes dynamic product development and keeps pace with growth and technology.
You May Have an Adhocracy Culture if Your Team Values:
Adaptive mindset
Flexible working conditions
Ever changing task forces, matrices, and/or cross-functional teams
No organization chart
Trendy innovation
Willingness to pivot
Some companies are known for the adhocracy culture. Most start-ups and entrepreneurial organizations are adhocracies until their growth requires the institution of processes and bureaucracy. X Development LLC, IDEO, Genentech, and Menlo Innovation are examples of adhocracy cultures.
Presidential Administrations
Even United States Presidential Administrations have been considered adhocracies. In the 1980s, Roger Porter, eventually President George H.W. Bush’s domestic affairs advisor, used the term “adhocracy” to describe the administrative style of presidential administrations. As Porter said, adhocracy, "minimizes reliance on regularized and systematic patterns of providing advice and instead relies heavily on the President to distribute assignments and select whom he listens to and when." An adhocracy administration trusts people over the bureaucracy, doesn’t use processes to develop policy, is decentralized, and relies on improvisation. On the positive side, adhocracy administrations are less prone to leaks, quickly champion new ideas and policies, and are flexible. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, Bill Clinton’s, and Donald Trump’s Administrations could be considered adhocracies.
Conclusion
Adhocracy culture has a role in modern business. Flexibility and innovation drive start-ups and transformation. Whatever culture your company possesses — clan, adhocracy, market, or hierarchy — go on the offense, leverage your strengths, and keep working the problem. Thanks as well with the help on the SEO experiment on adhocracy culture and Search Engine Optimization.