Development Phases for the New Era Organization

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The pioneer organizations of the New Era are generally start-ups led with a visionary leader or are organizations in crisis, also led with a strong leader who sees a different path forward.?This leaves most organizations that are facing bureaucratic dysfunctions but not yet in a crisis situation.?Unfortunately, this gap that organizations must bridge to move into the New Era is too great without breaking the journey up into four phases – sensemaking, reframing, exploring & testing, and adoption.

Phase 0 – Involving the organization in Sensemaking of the current situation

The traditional Industrial Era hierarchy with a command & control operating style serves as the base case that is well known including the dysfunctions that go along with it.?We also know that if you keep doing what you’ve been doing – that is what you will continue to get.?The objective for this phase is to have some cross-organization understanding of what type of organization do we want to have.?There is no plan for change, only the requirements for what the change needs to address as the organization moves into Phase 1.

Phase 1 – Reframe Industrial Era Practices – keeping some & discarding others

In this reframing of Industrial Era practices, explicit attention is directed to the underlying values and assumptions driving how we choose to organize for work going forward as a desired vision – not an immediate change but directional when evaluating what works and what does not now.?The objective for Phase 1 is to determine the current assumptions and practices that support or suppress movement toward the desired organization identified in Phase 0.?This is not full-scale change of values and assumptions but clarity that the Industrial Model of the past is failing society at this time of human history and change is needed.?By focusing on some currently accepted practices and not others, the mental model of what is possible starts to change that can then be leveraged in Phase 2.?Further, this assessment of current practices can be reframed within the context of how pioneering organizations structure and approach their purpose as people become aware of what is possible.?

Phase 2 – exploring & testing new ways of thinking – small nudges and tests

This phase will introduce many practices pioneered by leading edge organizations – not as Must Adopt but Can Consider.?The activities for this phase are to raise awareness of what is outside-the-box so discussions can begin on how other organizations address problems common to Industrial Era Organizations.?Change can begin as small pilot tests while recognizing that there are many reinforcing pressures in silos and hierarchical structures that will surface.?As each issue surfaces, the organization can choose to directly address the pressures resisting change or see if there are alternate pathways around the problem.?This is a traditional learning process where ideas are tested and quickly discarded or revised as issues arise.?The tests that move the organization in a desired direction can be expanded and institutionalized in the next phase.?The objective for Phase 2 is to (1) identify structures, practices, and operating style differences observed in pioneering organizations and (2) start limited tests with these ideas.?These actions are designed to raise awareness of what is possible and determine which actions may be low-hanging fruit for quick wins – all without taking a great risk or facing the need for mobilizing a significant portion of the employees unnecessarily.

Phase 3 – full adoption of Futocracy principles, guidelines, and practices for the New Era Organization

This phase is better thought of as a mindset of thinking differently about organizations, leadership, and change with a large toolbox rather than as a destination with defined practices.?Ideas tested in Phase 2 are expanded in scope and scale, implementing principles and practices within the nine elements that are common across the pioneering organizations.?The objective for this phase is to build a learning organization that strives for continuous improvement toward an ideal “New Era Organization” that is flexible and purpose-driven with engaged employees who are committed.

For a deeper explanation of each of these phases and how they can be implemented see –

https://medium.com/painless-management/development-phases-for-the-new-era-organization-c358dec9d5c6

Coaching Lab – transitioning to the New Era Organization

A recurring Zoom session will be held each Thursday as a Coaching Lab for those interested in moving organizations into the New Era – flexible and purpose-driven with engaged employees.?Each week, we will focus on a different building block for the New Era Organization, but the agenda is subject to change based upon who shows up and what they would like to discuss.

Starting time – 9:00 am CDT, 2:00 pm UTC, 4:00 pm CEST.

·?????Focus for next Thursday July 27 – Influencing change outside your control

This Zoom session is for people who find themselves having to influence other people to make a behavioral change but lacking any formal authority over them.

Note – this is not a formal presentation but a coaching session.?The agenda is also subject to change based on who shows up and what their priority is.

Coaching & 14-day Challenge

Listen to Understand is now available for personal development.

What others are Saying

·?????Cost of Meetings

Leaders, your employees probably hate meetings. But teams can measure their true cost discusses an extension for Google Calendar that Spotify developed to calculate the cost of meetings.?By raising awareness of the cost, employees can determine who should attend, if they need to attend, and whether an alternative is better use of everyone’s time.?If you were to drill deeper into meeting agendas, they are often driven by poor organization alignment, lack of transparency, or an exercise of the hierarchical power structure.?While this extension raises awareness, any organization would do well to think about why they spend so much time in meetings and how their organization structure and operating style drive those meetings.

·?????Open hiring for high turnover positions??

Does No-Resumé, No-Interview Hiring Work? New Data Say Yes

This is obviously not an idea for all positions, but it seems to be getting good results for some entry level positions that are subject to high turnover.?Moving in this direction also requires some rethinking of onboarding, flexible scheduling, and support systems for people may have family obligations (children & parents) or more desire to work than past experience. ?Going in this direction also does not require full adoption but can borrow some ideas from pioneering organizations for interim steps such as dropping background checks or relaxing job requirements.

·?????Employee development

The invisible handbook of skills Gen Z employees lack

This generation grew up in the digital age and started to enter the workplace during the COVID lockdowns when work move remotely.?Employers are now discovering these employees lack many of the social skills employees develop in traditional office encounters.?Some of these missing skills include group problem-solving, network development, knowing when to ask for help, self-advocacy, time management, and workflow strategies.?While focusing on the younger workers and their needs, the author concludes the article with an opportunity for “reframing this generation’s missing skills as an opportunity to reexamine management policies and training procedures to benefit everyone in the workplace”.?This is likely to be more important going forward into the New Era where time and place of work continues to be driven by many factors beyond employer preferences. ?

Why this Newsletter

People are discovering that the old ways of working – aren’t working anymore.

They want ideas for constructing and managing a more effective Organization to meet the changing demands of the New Era of society and technology?

so they can establish flexible and purpose-driven organizations that are socially responsible with engaged employees who are committed.?

The “New Era Organizations” newsletter is published by the Futocracy Network.

Send any questions or news you would like to see published to [email protected]