There is currently a surge in interest in ‘next-stage organizations’, meaning those organizations that move beyond power and control paradigms, embrace complexity and seek to draw on the talents and passion of all those within the organisation. There have been renegades and prophets in this field for many years (Dee Hock, Ricardo Semler, E.F Schumacher to name just three) but now the ideas are becoming more widely discussed and applied, enabled by modern communications technology and an increasing awareness of the inability of large organisations to cope with and respond adequately to the speed and complexity of modern life.
A notable trigger was the publishing in 2014 of Frederic Laloux’s book “Reinventing Organisations”, a fine piece of research and analysis and storytelling which has given people a language and some core ideas to gather around.
One evidence of this surge in interest is a new “newsletter and meeting place” called Enlivening Edge. We are going to be keeping an eye on it – we have plenty of respect for the people who have set it up and it looks like it could be a valuable resource for those interested in this field of exploration.
www.enliveningedge.org