Organizational Cognitive Reserve

I recently subscribed to the Harvard Medical School Health Beat online newsletter. They must somehow know my age and the first article sent to me was “What Is Cognitive Reserve?” Here is what it said:

“You can think of cognitive reserve as your brain's ability to improvise and find alternate ways of getting a job done. It reflects how agile your brain is in pulling in skills and capacities to solve problems and cope with challenges. Cognitive reserve is developed by a lifetime of education and curiosity.”

Essential elements required for organizations to both possess and maximize their cognitive reserve might include:

• An organizational culture that is open to adapting to changing realities.

• A leadership dynamic, both lay and professional, that can make quick but thoughtful decisions.

• A leadership cohort with the aggregate skill set and experiences to not only react to sudden developments but to maximize the opportunities they present.

• Trust and mutual respect between lay and professional leaders.

• A willingness to make mistakes and the ability to learn from them.

So many non-profit organizations have goals, strategies, outcomes, outputs, metrics, and KPI’s. But do they have organizational cognitive reserves?