Organize for Complexity

Under the conditions of the industrial age – in sluggish markets and with relatively low-complexity value creation, efficiency gains could be achieved with management methods such as standards, rules, and planning. Even if these methods, even then, were not considered morally unobjectionable. In the meantime, these methods have become a problem in a variety of ways – both economically and morally

They organize innovation in such a way that ultimately each person shares in it, and can couple his or her motivation to the purpose of the work. Each day and every day. Google and W.L.Gore are notable examples among Beta organizations, in this regard. In these companies each employee can and should initiate research and development projects; financial resources are supposed to follow the ideas, not the other way around. Not mechanical allocation and budgets, but people with ideas. This way, people are far more likely to connect with the purpose of the organization

The future is unforeseeable, it is entrepreneurial. However, prevailing management thought is rooted in the dogma that we are able to somehow master the future, and control it: We just need to think of a goal and make a plan of how we can achieve it! The underlying belief is that the future is obedient to our plans, foreseeable, controllable. In reality, of course, markets are highly dynamic and surprising. And the more dynamic and complex markets become, the more internal control and central economic planning drive organizations into the wall