Aaron Dignan, The Last Re-Org You’ll Ever Do

The best change is the change that’s demanded, not forced.

Aaron Dignan, The Last Re-Org You’ll Ever Do

A fascinating post looking at emergent organizations — a term I used to characterize the new forms earlier this year, before I moved to fast-and-loose in the middle of 2013, and most recently the third way of work.

One thing missing is culture. Dignan touches that very gingerly, while he focuses almost exclusively on form. I think the discussion has to be motivated the other way. It’s insufficient to look at diagrams of how people relate to each other in non-hierarchical ways, and somehow discern the emergent order there.

We need to focus on what people value, what is permitted or not, and how people pull their way into the future instead of being pushed by others.

That’s why I liked his comment on change so much. It’s change we are pulling for that matters, not that is pushed on us by organization designers, or business management with a dubious performance-goosing agenda.