All of the ideas and practices presented in this book have been tested against the following ideas.
The world which has shaped many of our assumptions about organising is rapidly disappearing. We need to consciously reconnect with first principles and design organising systems adapted for todays world.
Forget about legal structures, finances, brands and departments. What naturally unfolds when we start with living systems, people and purpose?
Forget the concept of an organisation and embrace dynamic and interconnected networks.
We do not build organisations, we design organising systems.
Imagine sitting down with someone new to this work and explaining an organising system to them. We use language that they are familiar and comfortable with and new terms are only introduced when absolutely necessary.
In less than 15 minutes a new user should have all the new concepts they need to naturally explore the organising system with ease.
Our organising systems should resemble fractals where a small number of simple patterns can be applied at different scales to create structures of complex beauty. Coplexity should be emergent and not inherrant.
Our organising systems are not separate from the world but connected with it. They recognise this interconnection and naturally tend towards health and wellbeing at every level.
The technology we use deeply shapes the way we organise. Likewise software without culture is a lifeless system. To design organising systems we need to consider both the human and technical components.