Designed organisations

… and informal networks

What we can agree …

• If we do not innovate and challenge our traditional methods ourselves, someone else will re-invent our business - and even take our market share

• The environment is very volatile - and that means we have to keep changing - constantly

• Running an organisation today is very hard!

Key concerns …

• The critical need:

To have an effective strategy

To develop an organisation that is capable of delivering that strategy

To capitalise on our key asset – our people, their know-how and motivation

For control

How we often respond …

• We DESIGN our organisation and its key structures and processes

• We recruit talented people, monitor their performance and then invest in developing their skills further

• We research the market and develop our strategy

What this actually means …

• DESIGN is about providing stability, repeatability and predictability

• Designed organisational structures distribute power – to make decisions about resources

• Designed organisational processes distribute tasks – to create coherence

• We tell talented people to deliver the strategy that WE have created

What comes next …

• When we realise the world is unstable and unpredictable, we tell talented people they must innovate. In other words …

• … we tell them to create instability, unrepeatability and unpredictability …

• … within a system designed to produce the exact reverse …

• … and then complain when they don’t deliver!

What then develops …

• Talented people care about customers, quality, and the long-term success of the organisation

• Talented people want to innovate – it is a satisfying expression of their talent

• Self-organising informal networks innovate ways around designed-in constraints …

• … and distribute influence to get their added-value decisions made and implemented

How we then respond …

• We conclude that the design of our structures and processes must be at fault

• We invest physical, intellectual and emotional energy in re-designing structures and processes that do not exist in reality

• We run change programmes that rely on exhortation to try to change behaviour

• We decide the values people need – and communicate them – more exhortation!

There is another way …

• Recognise that self-organising groups are a reality – informal networks exist – they are how the work actually gets done

• Create the conditions for change – it cannot be commanded, but it can be enabled

• Replace detailed prescriptive rules by simple guidelines – complex adaptive strategies beat malicious obedience every time!

• Emergence is not disorder or scary – it’s fun, and just a different type of order!

Thank you

For more information, please contact Informal Networks at:

http://www.informalnetworks.co.uk/html/contact_us.html