For an organisation to be effective in the Social Age requires broad swathes of change: a recognition of the new ways we work, the ways we collaborate, the impacts of social collaborative technology, the need for evolved leadership models and the co-creation and co-ownership of change. A focus on fairness and equality, superb choreography and engagement with their community, both internally and in the wider world. A recognition of the values of sharing and the need to value people. The drive to agility.
But overall, it’s about mindset, about removing the blinkers that blind us to the need for change. To be fit for the Social Age won’t come about through one or two high profile and tasty projects. It’s a strategic shift from old and outdated systems and processes to more agile and relevant ones.
Incidentally, this doesn’t mean expensive and complex: it means considered and committed. Any organisation can get fit for the Social Age, if it’s willing to listen. And how will we spot the organisations that fail to adapt? Quite easily: they will be the ones we pass, fallen by the wayside.
The world we live in favours the asymmetric competitor: who, through good fortune or ignorance, spots the opportunity to subvert existing models, to challenge the status quo and win. Size alone will not protect us. Age and a sense of permanence that’s grounded in history and bricks will be of little use: indeed, it may be what holds us back. All the consistency and uniformity that’s driven by scalability may make us inert, ineffective. Unable to welcome risk and uncertainty, change and evolution.
So ask the question: who owns the future of the organisation? Is it the leadership alone, or is it in our own hands? How can you be part of the change, part of the provocation to change? Because it’s in our own self interest to poke the dinosaur, to ensure we have a set in the new world.
julianstodd
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