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I believe that the holy trinity of business is Innovation, Agility and Scaling.
Yes, I believe your company can innovate and scale while it stays agile. You can embrace change and even thrive on it. And it's possible to create a habitat for change in your company. Netflix has done it. Spotify has done it. Tesla has done it. A whole new generation of firms, that didn't exist a decade ago, have done it.
The only thing you need to do is transform your company from a hierarchical monolith into a networked economy.
OK, that probably sounds easier than it is.
But you have no choice.
Hierarchies are great at optimizing past successes.
Networks excel at finding options for future growth.
Hierarchies are wired for efficiency and exploitation.
Networks are better at effectiveness and exploration.
Hierarchies focus on planning for what is predictable.
Networks adapt with agility to what is unpredictable.
Hierarchies become less productive when they scale up.
Networks become more productive when they scale out.
Many people seem to understand this. Most people intuitively get that organizations should offer a change habitat for their workers, in which they allow anyone in the organization to lead a change initiative.
However, what few top managers seem to realize is that organizational transformation itself is full of options, exploration and unpredictability. Instead, managers make eight-step sequential plans for change programs. They hire change consultants from companies that are themselves wired hierarchically. And they prefer to see their own positions scale up, not out.
I believe real transformation doesn't work like that.
Moving the responsibility for change from a hierarchy to a network is a transformation that is best stimulated by a network, not by a hierarchy. Instead of paying one large management consulting firm, you should invite a hundred small companies to swarm all over your business. Instead of Powerpointing the future in a board room, you should immerse your company in a warm bath of innovation, agility and scaling.
You don't ask a chess player to help you be a better runner. Why would you ask a hierarchy to assist you in becoming a network?
Jurgen Appelo is a keynote speaker, author (most recently of #Workout), and pioneering manager of the business network Happy Melly. To have Jurgen speak at your event, or to get access to his free books, visit JurgenAppelo.com.
