Over the last few weeks, I have been watching a unique show called CrashCourse on YouTube. It covers a lot of academic topics such as history and economics and psychology from school and college level courses in an interesting and fun way. There is a new course they have begun called Big History which is particularly interesting. It covers the entire 13.8 billion year history of the universe and the 4 billion year history of our planet. (You can find more information about it on www.bighistoryproject.com)
One theme that it constantly speaks of is the rising complexity. And somehow I see that transcending across galaxies of organizations and people just as easily as the galaxies of stars and its planets. The theory simply states that 'Systems tends towards exponentially rising complexity over a linear time scale. We see that evidently through the evolution of life on this earth where of the 40 thousand odd years of humanity's existence we have effectively had civilizations only for the last 1/4th of that time period. An extension of this theory is that rising complexity results in rising challenges: a never ending series of effects and side effects!
Pull the same concept to organizations and they too start with single member ventures or with a handful of founders with a startup. But as the complexity in companies begin to rise, as the organizations start getting bigger, wider, more complex and more diverse so do their challenges, worries and constraints!
As the challenges are so also will their solutions will be: big, wide, complex and diverse. But I see this more as an eventual state. Because there is another set of rules that govern this universe: that of emergence and evolution.
Every state of rising complexity is matched with a state of evolution and its building blocks being formed through a state of emergence. And while some organizations adapt and let change course through their veins, others resist and eventually implode like a death star.
Organizations have a life of its own in the sense that the noblest desires of its leaders to survive would not help if its DNA is built with resistance to adapt and become something else. So what really does remain permanent?
Targets? They change every year.
Goals? They change every 2 to 3 years.
Strategies? They progress every 5 years or so.
Business Models? Transform every 10 years (maybe sooner!)
Mission and Vision? They too will see an evolution sometime in the organization's lifetime.
The only permanent element is the element of change. And the change is gradual and continuous.
No comments:
Post a Comment