On human organising

Since my first job in 1981, I have been observing the human systems we call organisations. They are capable of achieving extraordinary things — putting man on the moon, building aeroplanes, developing modern communications, and distributing food, clothing and other goods on a mass scale at great efficiency.

However this can often come at great cost. Too often, these organisations over-look the impact of their activities on the wider community. What good does it do us to live in bigger houses and have fancier phones if we don’t speak to our neighbours? Do we want to swap our rainforests and coral reefs and wildernesses for images on our virtual reality headsets? What good is more cheap food when we are facing an obesity epidemic?

My perspective is that too many of our organisations lack human qualities such as empathy, kindness, intuition, a sense of fairness. And too often they suppress such qualities in the people that make up their flesh and bones.

In a series of blog posts over the next few months I intend to look at the nature of human organising, and explore what we can do to make our organisations more human-like.

I hope you will join me and engage in the conversation.