Anticipating Tomorrow’s Organisation

by Andrew Rixon PhD

Did you know?Ants “discovered”

agriculture through division of labour

and hierarchy more than

40,000 years ago.

How far have we come?

Welcome the modern

organisational form…

The Hierarchical Organisation

Here’s a forgotten story

Once upon a time…

All was well within the hierarchy…

Systems, Structures, Policies

and Procedures were all working

smoothly.

Until one day when Jane saw a problem

sail in...

A problem that saw the need for

change...

Jane informed her boss. Her boss

informed her boss… And so on up the

hierarchy…

Eventually…

The CEO became aware of the

problem.

He agreed.

They needed to change.

Jane waited and watched as the

problem sailed on...

The CEO engaged his senior

leadership team.

They started work on a solution…

They engaged down the business. Layer

by layer. The solution eventually

made it to Jane.

The only problem was…

There was now a new problem

arriving…

Jane wondered if she would have to go through all that

AGAIN…

Fortunately for Jane there was

something on the horizon which

meant she wouldn’t have to...

Unfortunately for the organisation it also meant the end of the hierarchy as

they knew it.

Post Script:

A sign that we’ve moved beyond the

ants could be…

We’re not so hung-up on hierarchies…

Credits…

This piece was inspired by Bob Dick’s article titled “Whatever happened to bureacracy”.

Simon Kneebone cartoonist extraordinaire produced the pictures within.

Babel Fish Group, lead by Andrew Rixon PhD, is a boutique company helping organisations and individuals to become more resilient and adaptive in a world of increasing uncertainty through the development and use of complexity inspired approaches and tools.

Our flagship “Thriving in Complexity” programs include:

• The Two Stories• Getting Unstuck! How complexity helps…• Resilience through networks and systems thinking

For more, continue reading here: http://www.babelfishgroup.com