Manifesto for New Era Organizations

?Summary

The Manifesto for New Era Organizations captures the essence of transforming bureaucratic, Industrial Era organizations into adaptive, purpose-driven entities suited for the modern world. This manifesto is centered on the following principles:

1.???? Continuous Adaptation Over Stability: Organizations must evolve constantly rather than wait for episodic disruptions to instigate change.

2.???? Purpose Alignment: Work is designed to fulfill a clear, compelling purpose that aligns employees' efforts across the organization.

3.???? Engagement and Collaboration: People are not just cogs in a machine but are seen as creative, resourceful contributors who thrive in environments that foster engagement and teamwork.

4.???? Distributed Decision-Making: Decisions are made as close to the source of impact as possible, empowering employees and leveraging their firsthand insights.

5.???? Network-Based Structures: Evolve rigid hierarchies into interconnected networks that enable agility, rapid communication, and effective resource allocation.

6.???? Leadership as Facilitation: Leaders transition from command-and-control roles to becoming facilitators and coaches who enable team success and foster a shared sense of direction.

The manifesto challenges traditional bureaucratic models and encourages organizations to become resilient, innovative, and human-centered, effectively bridging the gap between Industrial Age legacies and the demands of a knowledge-driven, technology-enhanced future.

?Background

?Industrial Era bureaucracies are built on a deep foundation of assumptions that must now be challenged for organizations to evolve into the New Era.? What we need now is a Manifesto for the New Era – an expression of beliefs that provide a plan of action to revitalize slow, bureaucratic organizations.? This Manifesto documents what we believe necessary at this time and the underlying values for releasing human potential for the Future of Work – New Era Organizations.

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What we believe – enabling New Era Organizations

Valued people – Employee engagement is driven by involving them in problem-solving & decision-making.? This demonstrates the value of their contributions in an environment of psychological safety and active involvement.?

Meaningful Contribution and Purpose – People desire work that contributes to a larger, meaningful purpose. ?They want to make a difference in the World. ?People choose to volunteer their time to what they believe in.

Autonomy and Empowerment – People can be trusted and empowered to take initiative when they understand the organization’s purpose and are given the necessary authority and tools.

Self-management – If people can manage their personal lives, they can manage much of their work when purpose-aligned and enabled.

Change – People do not resist the change they co-create.? They resist “being changed”.

Acceleration – Centrally planned change cannot keep up with the increased pressures for change.? The rate of change is such that delayed change only makes the resulting reactive change more disruptive.?

?Innovation – Advances in technology and evolving worker expectations require new ways of thinking about organizations, leadership, and change.

Network of Networks – The traditional organization hierarchy only maps the delegation of authority.? As such, it is only one of many networks that operate within an organization.? Others include information flows, product & service flows, acquaintance networks of many types, centers of expertise, cross-organization work teams, etc.

Organic structures – Work is best organized with dynamic teams that routinely realign for changing work requirements.? Even efficient systems operating at scale periodically need some adjustment.

Integrated systems – organization boundaries are artificial, created for legal purposes or to define limits of authority.

Inertia – Paradigms are hard to change since you cannot see the box when you are inside it. ?However, you will suffocate if you remain inside that box.

Feed the Rumor Mill – Without radical transparency, the information vacuum will be filled by whatever makes sense to people given what they are hearing and seeing.

Vulnerability – Leading a traditional, hierarchical organization is often a lonely journey.? You are expected to know all the answers and fear showing any vulnerability or hesitation.?

No perfect solution – Instead there are several feasible solutions for each problem, each with some challenges.

Source of Power – Positional power can only gain compliance while Personal power moves toward commitment.? However, full commitment relies on Group powers (convening & collaboration) where power grows in use instead of being depleted.

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Guiding Values for operating New Era Organizations

Trust

·????? over compliance

·????? *** Trust is a driver for commitment that far surpasses the minimal effort that comes from compliance.

Purpose

·????? over profit maximization

·????? *** Purpose creates a sustainable and ethical foundation that aligns employees, customers, and communities alike.? Satisfy customer needs with engaged employees and profit will follow.

Leadership (functions)

·????? over leaders (hierarchical position)

·????? *** Focusing on Direction, Alignment, and Commitment (DAC Leadership) extends the leader role to include process and artifacts in accomplishing leadership.

Work orchestration (activity)

·????? over fighting who is a “leader” versus a “manager” (identity)

·????? *** Leadership and management functions need to be balanced accordingly to what is required for the situation.

Distributed Authority (Empowerment)

·????? over micromanagement (control)

·????? *** Responsibility for decision-making fosters a sense of ownership and speeds up responsiveness to change.

·????? *** There are two definitions of empowerment – power delegated to you and self-empowerment through boundary testing.

Co-creating solutions

·????? over communicating decisions

·????? *** Commitment does not come from “selling” a change someone does not want.

Strong alignment with purpose

·????? over rigid rules

·????? *** Replaces hard control processes with the soft control of “principles-in-tension”

Transparency

·????? over secrecy

·????? *** Transparent communication and shared knowledge create alignment and trust. ?Further, open information flows are essential for enabling distributed decision-making.

Collaboration

·????? over competition

·????? *** True organization strength lies in collective intelligence – prioritized cooperative problem-solving without internal competition and conflict between silos.

Networked teams that self-organize

·????? over rigid hierarchies built around delegation of power

·????? *** Disruptive reorganizations are replaced with routine adjustments to a Network of Networks

Adaptability

·????? over prediction or freezing the status quo

·????? *** Rigid structures designed for predictable conditions cannot evolve quick enough to meet new challenges and opportunities.

Innovation

·????? over tradition

·????? *** We are finding that the “old ways of working, aren’t working”.? Innovation is a natural organization process where everyone contributes to organizational evolution.? Delaying a response to pressure for change only makes the resulting reactive change more disruptive.?

Core Operating Principles for New Era Organizations

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1. Organize around the production of Work, not the Control of those doing the work.
2. Purpose clarity and organization alignment around the Statement of Purpose
3. Ownership of Work – strive for autonomy (independence) through distributed authority & decision-making
4. Encourage an entrepreneurial mindset enabled with effectuation
5. Transparency of information required for work, including assumptions & motivation

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Hard controls are replaced with the soft control of Purpose Alignment (#2&3 in tension).

Activity is enabled by an Entrepreneurial Mindset (#4).

Culture is driven by focus and openness (#1&5).

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Principles of Effectuation – Secrets of successful entrepreneurs

?Focus on what you can control

·????? the future is not found or predicted – it is created

Act now with what you have (resources drive goals)

·????? traditional approaches set goals then then find the resources to start

·????? small wins keep you moving forward, and

·????? more trials raise the probability of hitting the Big One

Partner to gain access to more resources (so you can do more)

·????? don’t worry about sharing – the pie will be larger

·????? any risk will also be shared

Take risks if you can afford the worst case (affordable loss)

·????? take more risks knowing that some losses will be offset by other gains

·????? risk management may undervalue low probability, large impact outcomes

Experiment and learn, repeat

·????? the only real failure is when you fail to learn

This Manifesto is championed by the Futocracy Network as a cornerstone for building resilient, agile organizations with deep employee engagement.? I would like to invite you to the “Future of Work Roundtable” on January 9 when the Futocracy Network will host an open roundtable discussion on this Manifesto.? Sections of the Manifesto will also be used for discussion starters throughout next year.

https://www.futocracy.network/events/fow-manifesto-for-new-era-organizations

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