The only way we can make ourselves is through making each other. And we always have a choice in how we make others. Do we do it using generative, both/and, mutually thriving stories, thoughts, and language, or do we do it using narcissistic, better than, zero-sum ideas? The choices we make for how we make others drives who “we” are.
Firms often view doing good and making a profit as trade-offs – if you do well at one, its at the expense of the other. However, the story of the Herman Miller company is just one that shows that the two actually often go hand in hand.
There is often a gap between how fast technology changes, and how fast human institutions respond to this change. This Governance Gap is one of the core problems of management today.
Many people want to act empathetically, but you can’t do this if you don’t first build empathy. And that’s the hard part.
Ideas change the world. It’s up to us to make sure they change things for the better.
If we flatten out our hierarchies and manage more inclusively, our organisations are more successful. So why don’t we do this?
People often wait for permission before they’ll try out new ideas. Now you have it.
To be a successful organisation, we need the skills to both find and execute new ideas. These two skill-sets often seem to be opposites. However, it is much more productive to think of them as a polarity – an interdependent set of skills which are both simultaneously necessary for success.
We often look for shortcuts to change, but there are none. The design process used by Charles and Ray Eames gives us insight into how we have to do the hard work if we want to change the world.
If we want to change the world, it’s not enough to have great ideas. We also have to have the managerial skills needed to execute our ideas. The baby incubator from Design that Matters is a great case study showing the obstacles we face.
Our organisations are idea-processing machines. This means that we need to think about how we get work done in new ways. There are some fascinating lessons in how to do this in the world’s first organisation chart, from 1854!
“The Googles, Amazons, Apples, Netflixes, and Capital Ones … don’t insist on performing lots of interesting experiments because they’re rich; they’re rich because they insist on performing lots of interesting experiments.”
