the responsive organization

The Responsive Organization

@vladimirpick / undercurrent / quirky / responsive.org

Hi, I’m VladBelive that good work is getting

harder to do

Believe that it’s too hard to bring

products to market

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This is an incredible time to be alive.

>>>

3D PRINTERINDUSTRIAL

ROBOTS

$500,000 ➤ $22,000

23x in 5 yrs

DRONES

$100,000 ➤ $700

142x in 6 yrs

SOLAR

$30/KWH ➤ $0.16/KWH

200x in 30 yrs

SENSORS

$20,000 ➤ $79

250x in 5 yrs

NEUROTECH

$4,000 ➤ $9044x in 5 yrs

DNA SEQUENCING

10,000x in 7 yrs$10MM ➤ $1,000

SOURCE: “EXPONENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS”, YURI VAN GEEST, HTTP://WWW.SLIDESHARE.NET/VANGEEST/EXPONENTIAL-ORGANIZATIONS-H

EXPONENTIAL INNOVATION ➤

$40,000 ➤ $100

400x in 7 yrs

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10

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2020

8

54

2 2 22m 14m

TYPICALFORTUNE 500

COMPANY

GOOGLE FACEBOOK TESLA UBER WHATSAPP SNAPCHAT OCULUSRIFT

YEARS TO REACH $1B MARKET CAP

SOURCE: “EXPONENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS”, YURI VAN GEEST, HTTP://WWW.SLIDESHARE.NET/VANGEEST/EXPONENTIAL-ORGANIZATIONS-H

BetterAccess

BetterPlatforms

BetterNetworks

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At the same time, the world is more complex and more uncertain than ever before.

>>>

MorePlayers

MoreInnovation

MoreInformation

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Amidst all that change, you know what has been remarkably unremarkable?

The way we design and run organizations. You know, the places where we spend over half our lives.

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Most companies don't get better every day.

Some get bigger, and some get smaller, but precious few deliver better performance, better people, and better culture over the long arc of time.

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But the world certainly seems to be.

Based on the work of Geoffrey West and Luis Bettencourt, when a city doubles in size, its inhabitants become 15% more innovative and productive.

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Bigger cities and organizations = more connections, more choices, more complexity.

The question is how do these systems manage that complexity?

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Some, in an effort to predict and control the uncertainty, adopt structures and processes designed for a hierarchical world.

In their view, the people at the top are kings and the people at the bottom are peasants. This approach slows them down, disengages talent, and limits their vision for the future.

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Others, as a reaction to the old way, adopt a chaotic approach, where anyone can do anything, and process is a bad word.

This approach goes great for awhile, but as things scale, work becomes misaligned, balls are dropped, and the culture often defers back to its implicit hierarchy.

THE TOP 20 MOST RESPONSIVE COMPANIES

Profit Purpose

Silos Networks

Planning Emergence

Efficiency Adaptivity

Controlling Empowering

Privacy Transparency

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Instead of hierarchy or chaos, we’ve designed a third way - a way to operate that balances control and chaos. Let’s call this the Quirky Way.

This “operating system” should give us a view of our current state (how work is done today), as well as a mechanism for progress and change at every level of the organization. This responsive approach requires a combination of principles and practices from Holacracy, Agile, Lean, Quirky itself, and other self-organizing companies.

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Roles and people are not 1:1. We wear many hats and our hats change.

These PRINCIPLES help us balance autonomy, speed, and risk

Consent is faster than consensus. Make decisions “safe to try” and move forward.

Discussing the work ≠ doing the work. Go try something and come back.

Nothing is set in stone. The rules, the roles, the structure… they wait for your improvement.

Control is a fantasy. Embrace uncertainty (and beat it) with clear goals and iteration.

Trust each other. Give your colleagues the benefit of the doubt (or get new colleagues).

281x Week

Action Meeting“What do you need?”

1x Month 1x Quarter

These PRACTICES help us keep moving and evolving

30 minutes 90 minutes 3 hours

Governance Meeting“What should change?”

Strategy Meeting“What should we prioritize?”

Vladimir Pick

@vladimirpick+1 917 596 8068

vladimir.pick@quirkyinc.com

PURPOSE Are we in pursuit of something meaningful?

NETWORKS Are we leveraging, growing, and serving networks of people and technology?

EMERGENCE Are we planning too much and not testing-and-learning enough?

ADAPTIVITY Are we over-engineering things? For efficiency, for control, or to preserve the status quo?

EMPOWERING Are we pushing authority to the edge of the organization? Is it clear who has it?

TRANSPARENCY Are we letting information flow? Is it improving our decisions? Are we tightly knit?

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# ESTIMATE ACTUAL BUGS

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