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WorkingOutLoud on the Value Architecture I’ve had some great feedback from Mark on the first draft of the new Guidebook, ‘Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Space Between’. This new work forms a series of ten sketches that show alternative manifestations of structure, power, and value, in our Organisations, plotted across a broad landscape. These are not ten ‘answers’, but rather ten sketches in an infinite number of possibilities.

WorkingOutLoud on the Value Architecture

I’ve had some great feedback from Mark on the first draft of the new Guidebook, ‘Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Space Between’. This new work forms a series of ten sketches that show alternative manifestations of structure, power,…

10 hours ago 0 0 0 0
WorkingOutLoud on Sketches of the Future Organisation I’m just back from two weeks of focussed writing, creating a full draft of the new Guidebook, ‘Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Space Between’. It’s the first time in a while that I’ve had such a block of dedicated time, and I was pleasantly surprised how able I was to maintain focus, and with what I created within it.

WorkingOutLoud on Sketches of the Future Organisation

I’m just back from two weeks of focussed writing, creating a full draft of the new Guidebook, ‘Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Space Between’. It’s the first time in a while that I’ve had such a block of dedicated time,…

6 days ago 0 0 0 0
Unreconciled: Being Human in the 21st Century My next book, ‘Unreconciled: Being Human in the 21st Century’, will be published in June. I received the proof copy last week, and immediately called Sae so that we could ‘unbox’ it together over Zoom: it’s a great feeling to see this work arrive in the world as such a beautiful artefact. We have both worked extremely hard to make it not simply a rigorous and powerful story told in words, but also through our shared illustration, a powerful call to action and illustration of the central themes.

Unreconciled: Being Human in the 21st Century

My next book, ‘Unreconciled: Being Human in the 21st Century’, will be published in June. I received the proof copy last week, and immediately called Sae so that we could ‘unbox’ it together over Zoom: it’s a great feeling to see this work arrive in…

1 week ago 0 0 0 0
#WorkingOutLoud on the Citadel, the Cultivated, and the Wilderness The Future Organisation exists in three spaces: the Citadel, the Cultivated, and the Wilderness. Today I’ve completed the full manuscript (first draft) for a new Social Age Guidebook, ‘Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Spaces Between’, and I’m sharing one of the opening sections, with it’s new illustration, that creates the canvas. The book contains ten Organisational Design Sketches, which are each structured differently, ranging from the fully Structural - recognisable as an Industrial model - through to the Technarchic, which is machine led.

#WorkingOutLoud on the Citadel, the Cultivated, and the Wilderness

The Future Organisation exists in three spaces: the Citadel, the Cultivated, and the Wilderness. Today I’ve completed the full manuscript (first draft) for a new Social Age Guidebook, ‘Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human,…

1 week ago 0 0 0 0
#WorkingOutLoud on the Socially Dynamic Organisation Continuing to share extracts from the new Guidebook, ‘Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Spaces in Between’, which is a focussed two week writing project. I am nearly complete on the first draft, hopefully tonight. Then a couple of days to polish it. The Socially Dynamic Organisation differs from the Structural in that it moves beyond the vertically segmented ‘Domain’ based structure, to a model of horizontal interconnection.

#WorkingOutLoud on the Socially Dynamic Organisation

Continuing to share extracts from the new Guidebook, ‘Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Spaces in Between’, which is a focussed two week writing project. I am nearly complete on the first draft, hopefully tonight. Then a…

1 week ago 0 0 0 0
#WorkingOutLoud on the Syntechnic Organisation I’m fully focussed this week on the Guidebook: ‘Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Spaces in Between’. Last week I shared a few fragments of writing, and today I’m sharing one of the five ‘decision authority’ sketches. I’ll share more context on this later in the week, but this writing is about 90% complete. The Syntechnic Organisation…

#WorkingOutLoud on the Syntechnic Organisation

I’m fully focussed this week on the Guidebook: ‘Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Spaces in Between’. Last week I shared a few fragments of writing, and today I’m sharing one of the five ‘decision authority’ sketches. I’ll share…

2 weeks ago 0 0 0 0
Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Spaces in Between I am #WorkingOutLoud for two weeks with a pure focus on a new body of work that sketches our illustrations of the future organisation. One of the sections in the book looks at the new Value Architecture work, and I’m sharing a first draft of that writing today. This is very early and unedited work, shared as part of #WorkingOutLoud.

Sketches of the Future Organisation: Human, AI, and the Spaces in Between

I am #WorkingOutLoud for two weeks with a pure focus on a new body of work that sketches our illustrations of the future organisation. One of the sections in the book looks at the new Value Architecture work, and I’m sharing…

2 weeks ago 0 0 0 0
#WorkingOutLoud on Decision Authority in the Human/AI Organisation I’ve been working today to describe five expressions of Organisational Design that vary decision authority and governance conditions: it’s a continua from the almost fully human, to the virtually automated. This is early stage work, but sharing the first of the sketches today. The continua runs from the ‘Anthropotechnic’, which is a human first model of technological evolution, through to the ‘Technarchic’, which is an unconstrained ‘handing over’ of authority to the algorithm.

#WorkingOutLoud on Decision Authority in the Human/AI Organisation

I’ve been working today to describe five expressions of Organisational Design that vary decision authority and governance conditions: it’s a continua from the almost fully human, to the virtually automated. This is early stage…

3 weeks ago 0 0 0 0
Sketches of Organisational Design I’m running through a series of sketches around Organisational Design Principles for the Socially Dynamic Organisation: these are all expressions of Post-Industrial structure, and each, in their own way, plays with aspects of boundary, permeability, configuration, power, governance, capability, variability, scale, and a host of other features. They are not representative of blueprints, but rather illustrate underlying terrain. So, for example, this illustration is of the…

Sketches of Organisational Design

I’m running through a series of sketches around Organisational Design Principles for the Socially Dynamic Organisation: these are all expressions of Post-Industrial structure, and each, in their own way, plays with aspects of boundary, permeability, configuration,…

3 weeks ago 0 0 0 0
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#WorkingOutLoud on Organisational Design Ultimately our decision on the structure of the Post-Industrial Organisation may be less a matter of what we can imagine, and more a matter of what it will cost. Not simply in terms of money, but also the parallel currencies of trust, belonging, identity, as well as associated systems of resilience, control, and kinetic potential. The choice may be forced upon us to relinquish dogma - the idea of the familiar, structural, and fully coherent Organisation - and explore alternative manifestations.

#WorkingOutLoud on Organisational Design

Ultimately our decision on the structure of the Post-Industrial Organisation may be less a matter of what we can imagine, and more a matter of what it will cost. Not simply in terms of money, but also the parallel currencies of trust, belonging, identity,…

4 weeks ago 0 0 0 0
The Meta-Tribal Organisation Continuing yesterdays conversation about alternative framings of Organisational Design, the ‘Meta-Tribal’ Organisation is an experiment in minimum viable coherence. It considers the primary structure of Organisation to be tacit, tribal, social, not structurally defined, and asks the questions of just how much can be devolved, diffused, and distributed, whilst still maintaining coherence. Or to phrase it another way: just how distributed can you be before you cease to ‘be’ a thing.

The Meta-Tribal Organisation

Continuing yesterdays conversation about alternative framings of Organisational Design, the ‘Meta-Tribal’ Organisation is an experiment in minimum viable coherence. It considers the primary structure of Organisation to be tacit, tribal, social, not structurally…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
The Intertidal Organisation I find myself caught up between parallel strands of evolution. Documenting not one, but multiple concurrent prototypes of the Socially Dynamic Organisation, each founded upon a different configuration, and principles. I’m letting this work run wild, as it is carrying out that most valuable of functions, allowing me to build my vocabulary and understanding. Allowing me to sketch the rivers and mountains in a new part of this map.

The Intertidal Organisation

I find myself caught up between parallel strands of evolution. Documenting not one, but multiple concurrent prototypes of the Socially Dynamic Organisation, each founded upon a different configuration, and principles. I’m letting this work run wild, as it is carrying…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
Strategic AI: People First? Our desire to keep people at the centre of our Organisations is noble, understandable, but ultimately not borne out by history or experience. It’s a recurrent theme in my conversations about Strategic AI, and certainly a self belief expressed across a number of the network events and conferences I attend. I think it speaks to how we wish to see ourselves, within the narrative of change that has been imposed upon us, as the ‘good’ people, and how, when faced by complexity, we tend to fall into ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, when in fact what we are describing is simply an evolution of the system.

Strategic AI: People First?

Our desire to keep people at the centre of our Organisations is noble, understandable, but ultimately not borne out by history or experience. It’s a recurrent theme in my conversations about Strategic AI, and certainly a self belief expressed across a number of the…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
Social Leadership: The Modern Context What it means to be a leader has changed, in structure, location, and mechanism. We inhabit the remnants of the Industrial Organisation, within societies whose design remains rooted in feudal notions of power and effect, whilst seeking to adapt to constant change. We lead within a fractured social context and contract, with evolved expectations of both how labour will engage and the Organisations contracting structures within which this will happen.

Social Leadership: The Modern Context

What it means to be a leader has changed, in structure, location, and mechanism. We inhabit the remnants of the Industrial Organisation, within societies whose design remains rooted in feudal notions of power and effect, whilst seeking to adapt to constant…

1 month ago 1 0 0 0
Familiar Yet Different Adaptation to a hybrid human plus GenAI world will involve adaptation within existing systems, but also the re-imagination of those systems. Those who get stuck in the first framing will end up efficient, optimised, but failing, as context moves further away from their structural reality. But we cannot get to the second space without the careful deconstruction of certain knowledge, …

Familiar Yet Different

Adaptation to a hybrid human plus GenAI world will involve adaptation within existing systems, but also the re-imagination of those systems. Those who get stuck in the first framing will end up efficient, optimised, but failing, as context moves further away from their…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
Shared Space Somewhere between the ‘Public’ and the ‘Private’ lies the ‘Commons’. Shared space, controlled within both legal and social contexts, open yet contested. This is the space of connection and convening, of protest and marketplace, of shared identity and imposed power. Our modern urban environments hold common space within both arcane structures of property ownership, planning law and leasehold, as well as within contemporary contexts of co-working, folklore of community, and free WiFi.

Shared Space

Somewhere between the ‘Public’ and the ‘Private’ lies the ‘Commons’. Shared space, controlled within both legal and social contexts, open yet contested. This is the space of connection and convening, of protest and marketplace, of shared identity and imposed power. Our modern urban…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
Health and Social Care: Evolutions Yesterday I had the pleasure of walking around Yeovil with a friend, exploring the traces, shadows and signs of change, and talking about the challenges facing the National Health System in the UK as it seeks to adapt to new medicines, new technologies, new political and economic realities, and an evolved social context. As I waited for us to meet, I looked around the High Street: in my immediate vision were three mobile phone repair shops, one vape store, and one boarded up former furniture department store.

Health and Social Care: Evolutions

Yesterday I had the pleasure of walking around Yeovil with a friend, exploring the traces, shadows and signs of change, and talking about the challenges facing the National Health System in the UK as it seeks to adapt to new medicines, new technologies, new…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
Creativity in the Age of AI Organisations often hold ‘creativity’ in a special box: either one that is opened on special occasion, or one which is carefully hidden away in the back of a cupboard, and quietly dismissed. It’s as though we hold the idea of creativity in tension with ideas of productivity, purpose, or effectiveness, which may be rooted in our cultural perspective of ‘creativity as art’, or ‘entertainment’.

Creativity in the Age of AI

Organisations often hold ‘creativity’ in a special box: either one that is opened on special occasion, or one which is carefully hidden away in the back of a cupboard, and quietly dismissed. It’s as though we hold the idea of creativity in tension with ideas of…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
Social Leadership: Choices I find myself wandering around a little, somewhat daunted by the idea of the new Social Leadership book, but also aware that I committed to get started this month. The reason for my hesitancy is unclear: over the last couple of years I’ve written quite a few primary articles, developing the core ideas, and in theory these should give me the architecture of the book.

Social Leadership: Choices

I find myself wandering around a little, somewhat daunted by the idea of the new Social Leadership book, but also aware that I committed to get started this month. The reason for my hesitancy is unclear: over the last couple of years I’ve written quite a few primary…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
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#WorkingOutLoud on ‘Ecosystems’ Through this year I’m writing about ‘The Organisation as Ecosystem’, the backbone being an exploration of the New Forest, wrapped around a more philosophical exploration of twelve aspects of organisational ecosystems. Very early stage #WorkingOutLoud: it will make more sense in time, I promise… River has packed his bag today: it’s our second month of walking together, working on our book together, and now he knows what to expect.

#WorkingOutLoud on ‘Ecosystems’

Through this year I’m writing about ‘The Organisation as Ecosystem’, the backbone being an exploration of the New Forest, wrapped around a more philosophical exploration of twelve aspects of organisational ecosystems. Very early stage #WorkingOutLoud: it will make…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
Human Plus AI: Core Tensions of the Anthropotechnic The narrative enquiry I recently ran across around forty Organisations illustrated broad insight around the patterns of adaptation required for an anthropotechnic future (humans plus AI), but also a clear articulation of structural constraint. In fact, from that work alone, with around seventy individual participants, we saw twenty five core tensions illustrated, but for this writing I have compiled a more fundamental list of fifteen.

Human Plus AI: Core Tensions of the Anthropotechnic

The narrative enquiry I recently ran across around forty Organisations illustrated broad insight around the patterns of adaptation required for an anthropotechnic future (humans plus AI), but also a clear articulation of structural constraint. In…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
WorkingOutLoud on the Organisation as Ecosystem I’m sharing some of the new writing, on the ‘Organisation as Ecosystem’. I’ve worked on this through January and early February, and now, six weeks in, I am pulling together what is a first chapter of the book (or what may become a book). The backbone of the work is to walk in the forest through this year, embodied in the ecosystem, the fixed and the fluid, and developing a language around it - and woven through that are both the ‘

WorkingOutLoud on the Organisation as Ecosystem

I’m sharing some of the new writing, on the ‘Organisation as Ecosystem’. I’ve worked on this through January and early February, and now, six weeks in, I am pulling together what is a first chapter of the book (or what may become a book). The…

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
Generative Inquiry into Design Principles for the Future Learning Organisation #1 I’ve been working with a community of around twenty learning leaders, from complex organisations, using the new Learning Constellation framework to consider three things: [1] where capability sits (between the ‘Structural’ and the ‘Social’, [2] to explore the validity of certain core assumptions about learning (and what they will fight to dismantle, or to keep), and finally [3] to plot their intended future organisation against eight continua (which represent the shift from the fully industrial, to the fully Socially Dynamic, organisation).

Generative Inquiry into Design Principles for the Future Learning Organisation #1

I’ve been working with a community of around twenty learning leaders, from complex organisations, using the new Learning Constellation framework to consider three things: [1] where capability sits (between the…

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
Tensions I’ve been flat out today, writing up a research report from the Strategic Workforce Planning community event two weeks ago: I had around seventy leaders, from over forty organisations, exploring the question of ‘how we unlock the value of a human and AI future’. I used a series of five boards to capture structured outputs across the day, and collected about two hundred large post it notes with questions, ideas, challenges, and responses, to what had been shared.

Tensions

I’ve been flat out today, writing up a research report from the Strategic Workforce Planning community event two weeks ago: I had around seventy leaders, from over forty organisations, exploring the question of ‘how we unlock the value of a human and AI future’. I used a series of five…

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
The Learning Constellation I’ve been working flat out on the structure of an event I’m running this week for senior learning leaders: it’s called the ‘Learning Constellation’, and really it’s a scaffolded structure through which to consider central themes of transformation. I’m using a lot of scarcity and forced choice to try to prise apart our current conceptions, and give us space to imagine the new.

The Learning Constellation

I’ve been working flat out on the structure of an event I’m running this week for senior learning leaders: it’s called the ‘Learning Constellation’, and really it’s a scaffolded structure through which to consider central themes of transformation. I’m using a lot of…

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
Social Leadership: Holistic Perspective It’s almost time for me to pick up the Social Leadership work again. The second edition of the Social Leadership Handbook was published in 2017, and since then my own work has considerably broadened the landscape, and my understanding of Social Leadership has deepened through practice. Over the last two years I have been developing the language and ideas to come back to this central space, for what I think will be an entirely new Social Leadership book, as opposed to a third edition of the Handbook.

Social Leadership: Holistic Perspective

It’s almost time for me to pick up the Social Leadership work again. The second edition of the Social Leadership Handbook was published in 2017, and since then my own work has considerably broadened the landscape, and my understanding of Social Leadership…

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
Context & Evolution of Learning in the Modern Org The context of learning within our modern Organisations has shifted dramatically, in a relatively short space of time. The change has occurred at both the broadest level - the question of ‘what learning is’ for an Organisation - down to the most granular level - how you and I learn every day. But this change has not simply been an efficiency of utility, or optimisation of resource.

Context & Evolution of Learning in the Modern Org

The context of learning within our modern Organisations has shifted dramatically, in a relatively short space of time. The change has occurred at both the broadest level - the question of ‘what learning is’ for an Organisation - down to the most…

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
Value Architecture and the Social Contract Today I’m facilitating a large group event, with people from over forty different organisations, on Strategic Workforce Planing and future Organisational Design. It’s based around a series of deliberate provocations, and I’m using two in the group work. The first is the the notion of the Value Architecture that I developed for the Strategic AI workshops. This is really a framework to help us assess what is static, and what is in motion, and the value we put upon these things.

Value Architecture and the Social Contract

Today I’m facilitating a large group event, with people from over forty different organisations, on Strategic Workforce Planing and future Organisational Design. It’s based around a series of deliberate provocations, and I’m using two in the group work.…

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
Organisation as Ecosystem: Seasons Through this year I am building out a body of new writing on ‘The Organisation as Ecosystem’. The backbone is a series of walks in the New Forest, the National Park on the south coast of the UK. I am walking it, with River, through the seasons, and much of the early writing is an exploration of the vocabulary that I need to understand it: to see the landscape in terms of the fixed and the fluid, and to explore…

Organisation as Ecosystem: Seasons

Through this year I am building out a body of new writing on ‘The Organisation as Ecosystem’. The backbone is a series of walks in the New Forest, the National Park on the south coast of the UK. I am walking it, with River, through the seasons, and much of the…

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
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Recording ‘Unreconciled: Being Human in the 21st Century’ I spent today recording the audiobook for ‘Unreconciled’ or, more accurately, recording half of the audiobook. The day went well, with my voice holding up (mainly due to Arthur brewing me endless mugs of ginger, honey, and lemon), and it was really rather a pleasure to get lost in the work. Not feeling a need to edit, or evolve it, but rather just to be lost in the flow of it.

Recording ‘Unreconciled: Being Human in the 21st Century’

I spent today recording the audiobook for ‘Unreconciled’ or, more accurately, recording half of the audiobook. The day went well, with my voice holding up (mainly due to Arthur brewing me endless mugs of ginger, honey, and lemon), and it…

2 months ago 0 0 0 0