{"id":2159,"date":"2018-05-12T17:22:14","date_gmt":"2018-05-12T15:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/?p=2159"},"modified":"2018-05-12T17:33:01","modified_gmt":"2018-05-12T15:33:01","slug":"human-centric-organization-emerge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/2018\/05\/12\/human-centric-organization-emerge\/","title":{"rendered":"Letting the human centric organization emerge"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-via=\"absolutesubzero\" data-hashtags=\"aequacy,asterys,holacracy,self-management,self-organization,sociocracy\" data-count=\"vertical\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/2018\/05\/12\/human-centric-organization-emerge\/\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Schermata-2018-05-12-alle-17.08.44.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2166\" src=\"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Schermata-2018-05-12-alle-17.08.44-300x149.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"850\" height=\"423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Schermata-2018-05-12-alle-17.08.44-300x149.png 300w, https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Schermata-2018-05-12-alle-17.08.44-768x382.png 768w, https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Schermata-2018-05-12-alle-17.08.44.png 846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>4 years is a big span of time, especially in technology. That&#8217;s exactly how long ago <a href=\"http:\/\/socialcollaborationsurvey.com\/\">our research<\/a> surfaced the first evidence of a new organizational breakthrough that went well beyond pure employee collaboration and engagement.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/en\/index.php\/2014\/05\/19\/exploring-the-quantum-leap\/\">Exploring the Quantum Leap<\/a>, I had clustered <strong>market collaborative maturity in 3 + 1 categories<\/strong>, from a &#8220;deploy and pray&#8221; immature, technology first and purely experimental approach to the &#8220;connected organization&#8221;, where social networks and communities acted as the strategic glue for a more fluid and knowledge-centric company. A paradigm shift from a less or more pervasive collaboration to a<strong>n entirely new kind of human centric organization<\/strong> was indeed depicted at the top of pyramid:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/14221049175_82ceffe698_c.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2936\/14221049175_82ceffe698_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"528\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>More a gut feeling than a comprehensive identikit of such a enlightened organization, in that post I had suggested some characteristics for what was going to come, including <strong>an increased focus on shared value, team autonomy, transparency, collaboration and agility<\/strong>. Such warning signs notwithstanding, I was reasonable sure that only a marginal fraction of the market was already working towards similar outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to 2018, <strong>the human side of the firm seems to have become a central concern<\/strong> for many executives, managers and average employees. <a href=\"https:\/\/asterys.it\/\">Asterys<\/a>, the global organizational development firm lead by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/giovanna-d-alessio-362a0\/\">Giovanna D&#8217;Alessio<\/a> e <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/stefanopetti\/\">Stefano Petti<\/a>, just published <a href=\"https:\/\/aequacy.com\/register-and-download\/\"><strong>&#8220;Organization 3.0. The company of the future&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> aimed at investigating such transition and especially the level of awareness and appetite the market has for it.<\/p>\n<p>When asked to imagine the ideal firm of the future, 800 professionals and leaders across Europe and US provided inspiring insights about how a mounting level of complexity, uncertainty and continuous change is reshaping foundational aspects of the company such as strategy, decision making, coordination, information sharing, performance management and rewarding.<\/p>\n<p>The most interesting predictions participants offered are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>CROSS SILO COLLABORATION &#8211; Collaboration will cut across team and department boundaries<\/strong> according to 71% of respondents. This expectation is stronger for executive millenials (88%) and leaders (&gt;80%) in large organizations (&gt;50K employees).<\/li>\n<li><strong>DISTRIBUTED DECISION MAKING &#8211; Decisions will be decentralized to teams at the periphery of the firm and executed according to shared values.<\/strong>&nbsp;54% of participants are convinced employees and not managers will have the ability and a supporting environment to take risks and make autonomous choices at the nearest point of contact with customers and partners. According to 59% of the sample, the team will be the preferred locus of decision making and, to another 55%, this will happen by following a common set of guiding principles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>TOTAL TRANSPARENCY &#8211; A free flow of information appears as a required factor to thrive in a constantly changing environment<\/strong>. 64% of the respondents believe access will be granted to all the available information across functional silos, hierarchical levels and political fiefdoms. 25% expects it to also include sensitive data such as financials and compensation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SELF MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION &#8211; Teams will be self-directed and self-managed without any hierarchy or boss.&nbsp;<\/strong>48% of the sample (but 61% of participants between 25 and 35 years of age excluding US and UK) remarks that each team will define its own strategy and objectives. According to 52% of total respondents, the control pyramid is out of time and more than 36% of managers and executives imagine teams with no boss.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SIMPLIFICATION &#8211; An extreme simplification of bureaucratic processes and systems<\/strong> is envisioned by 59% of overall respondents and by 70% of executives, in order to unlock both agility and employee motivation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SMART WORK &#8211; Work won&#8217;t be limited to the office,<\/strong> if 77% of the sample considers the physical workplace as just one of the many possible locations from which work is performed and 36% explicitly sees it as useful only in specific occasions (the opposite of what holds true today).<\/li>\n<li><strong>STAKEHOLDER CENTRITICY &#8211; Employees, partners, vendors, suppliers will broaden the current focus on customers<\/strong> for 54% of the respondents (80% in Spain).<\/li>\n<li><strong>CONTINUOUS TEAM FEEDBACK&nbsp; &#8211; Annual performance appraisals will give way to fluid, peer to peer feedback<\/strong> according to half of the answers. 23% of them also reposition reviews from the individual to the team level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Asterys recently launched <a href=\"https:\/\/aequacy.com\/how\/\">Aequacy<\/a>, a new organizational model that builds on the outcomes of this research. You are definitely invited to have a look at it and to the <a href=\"https:\/\/aequacy.com\/aequacy-book\/\">new book<\/a> under the same name.<\/p>\n<p>Two thoughts really stand out for me. Before all else, this is,&nbsp;at the best of my knowledge (but please point me to other sources in case I&#8217;m wrong), the <strong>first quantitative study on human centric organizations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It was very much required and, while the team delved more into the salient traits of a future looking organization than into the current market maturity regarding them, <strong>its results are definitely surprising in terms of the current level of curiosity, awareness and perceived need for nothing short than a revolution in the way work is design and performed<\/strong>. In other words, a much needed work for a much needed change!<\/p>\n<p>As a second consideration, reaping the benefits of such a long term transformational journey will require a deep rethinking of the very basic principles our organizations are built upon. During the years, a multitude of competing models and networks have gained notoriety. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.holacracy.org\/\">Holacracy<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sociocracy\">Sociocracy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sociocracy30.org\/\">Sociocracy 3.0<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.teleocracy.com\/\">Teleocracy<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/bbrt.org\/\">Beyond Budgeting<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/reinventingorganizationswiki.com\/Main_Page\">Teal<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/betacodex.org\/\">BetaCodex<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldblu.com\/\">Organizational Democracy<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/modernagile.org\/\">Modern Agile<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.responsive.org\/\">Responsive Orgs<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.self-managementinstitute.org\/\">Self Management Institute<\/a>&nbsp;are only a few of the options available.<\/p>\n<p>While each stresses different aspects (and none in my opinion all the required ones), the analysis highlights a growing desire for &#8220;extreme solutions&#8221; that even new frameworks tend to miss. As an example, <strong>both Sociocracy and Holacracy are still suggesting hierarchical structures<\/strong> (not of individuals but of roles) in which some of the responsibility of a team (allocating resources, assigning individual to roles, representing the purpose, defining strategies and priorities) is centralized and positioned outside the team (through the lead link, a non elected role), thus severely limiting employee motivation and autonomy. On the contrary, participants to the study envision the <strong>end of any top-down dependency or control<\/strong> and, at the same time, <strong>an ecosystemic-like idea of the firm that opens fluid and autonomous coordination well beyond traditional company boundaries,<\/strong>&nbsp;in order to engage all stakeholders as peers.<\/p>\n<p>Looking back at 4 years ago, I feel&nbsp;<strong>the collective awareness of how we want the world of work to evolve has dramatically improved<\/strong>. Hundreds of pioneering organizations and innovators are experimenting with, tailoring and refining exciting new models to address the constantly shifting needs of their stakeholders. But awareness doesn&#8217;t bring far without confidence. Their successes and failures are a source of inspiration for us all, while we accelerate the search for the missing tiles of this human \/ organizational puzzle and especially for the instructions about how to put them together.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-via=\"absolutesubzero\" data-hashtags=\"aequacy,asterys,holacracy,self-management,self-organization,sociocracy\" data-count=\"vertical\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/2018\/05\/12\/human-centric-organization-emerge\/\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div><script type=\"text\/plain\" class=\"cc-onconsent-inline-social\" src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><!-- Do not remove -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>4 years is a big span of time, especially in technology. That&#8217;s exactly how long ago our research surfaced the first evidence of a new organizational breakthrough that went well beyond pure employee collaboration&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[594,597,595,592,593,596],"class_list":["post-2159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-business-en-2","tag-aequacy","tag-asterys","tag-holacracy","tag-self-management","tag-self-organization","tag-sociocracy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2159"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2172,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159\/revisions\/2172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialenterprise.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}