Finally I have a time to put in a post all my thoughts after reading a new book - “Organize for complexity” by Niels Pflaeging.
It is a must read for those, who feel that hierarchies, bonuses, command and control management - is not the right approach for modern organizations to follow and needs to be changed for better performance. You will enrich this list of “things to change” with even more principles and approaches after reading the book.
This book covers many topics but not too deeply, that’s why it leaves you with more questions than answers after reading it. It will definitely make you think, explore and seek for more information to do the change.
Here are a couple of quotations, that I find interesting:
- Self-organization is not the “right” term. Better would be: Socially dense market-organization.
- Social pressure, used correctly: far more powerful that hierarchy, no damaging side-effects.
- Your organization is already networked. It is just not allowed to officially operate as one.
- Culture neither is a barrier to change, nor does it encourage change. It can provide hints to what an organization must learn.
- Understood correctly, leadership in complexity means working the system, not the people.
- Let purpose drive behavior. Not numbers, or manipulative and controlling processes.
As I already mentioned, this book doesn’t give you a deep and detailed explanation of topics, so I would highly recommend to listen to Niels presentation or webinar or attend a workshop. These together with the book will give you a much better ground for the change you want to implement.