Week 18, 2019
Brave New Work, Part 2: Corporate Longevity, Command & Control, and People Positive
Each week: three ideas for how to make work better. This week: three ideas from Aaron Dignan’s Brave New Work.
This is part 2. Check out part 1 to get caught up.
Let’s dig right in.
1. Corporate Longevity
Last week’s issue focused on complexity. And it made the claim that organizations must adopt a new mindset — they must be Complexity Conscious — if they want to survive, much less thrive, in a world of rapid and constant change. It’s not an empty threat. Research shows that corporate longevity (i.e., the time a corporation stays in business) is falling through the floor; down from 61 years in the late 50s to an average of 24 years today. And it’s expected to fall to just 12 years within the next decade! Change is happening. And it’s happening fast.
For more on this, check out Innosight’s 2018 Corporate Longevity Forecast: Creative Destruction is Accelerating.
2. Command & Control
So what’s an organization to do? Is it enough to simply engage with complexity? No, but it’s a start. Because once you do you realize that most organizations are built on a flawed premise: that people dislike work and that they need extrinsic motivators in order to perform. It’s what Douglas McGregor (1906–1964) called Theory X, and it’s the reason we built massive command and control structures; it’s the reason we built bureaucratic organizations. And that’s the problem. These organizations aren’t built for speed; they can’t cope with rapid and constant change.
3. People Positive
Longevity is on the decline and bureaucracy is the problem. We need a new People Positive mindset. We need to replace Theory X with Theory Y — its polar opposite; we need to start with the assumption that work is natural and fulfilling and that motivation comes from within. Only then will we be able to do away with command and control structures and move towards self-management, speed, and agility. Bureaucracies are flawed because they focus power on a select few. And that’s a recipe for disaster in this new world of work. Bureaucracy might have gotten us to where we are. But only empowerment will allow us to go further.
The world is changing. Complexity is on the rise. And organizations that are unable to cope with rapid and constant change are falling by the wayside. A new mindset is needed, one that centers on trust and empowerment; one that is People Positive. Only then will we be able to create organizations fast and agile enough to cope with this brave new world of work.
That’s all for this week.
Until next time: Make it matter.
/Andreas
PS. Dignan’s book is a great read. I highly recommend it. So much so, in fact, that I’ve bought copies for everyone in my management team. Get your copy at bravenewwork.com.
