“Smooth shapes are very rare in the wild but extremely important in the ivory tower and the factory”. — Benoît Mandelbrot 1
[The feedback from my first Substack “Video Post” last week requested more content in the new format. The closed captions auto-generated by Substack proved especially popular with those whose first language is not English. I can fully understand that. In 1995, I gave a talk at to a Rotary Club in Punjab, India. In his vote of thanks, the Chairman told me: “Geoff - you must be improving your English”. I’m still working on it Ramesh…]
I was recently posed the following question:
“Geoff, we were on a Zoom call together a while back in which you were critical of the idea of “flat organisations”. A lot of people point to hierarchy as a problem in creating dynamically adaptive organisations – what you call a “future-fit culture”. Can you say more about why you don’t think “flat organisations” are the way to go?”
The 12-minute video above addresses this question, pointing out that the problem isn’t hierarchy — but the conflation of hierarchy with decision making.
The video cites two previous written articles that explore the theme in further detail:
Ready to take action?
My website provides a range of free resources to help you make the shift for yourselves, by yourselves, from “organisation as machine to be designed and operated” to “organisation as human community for shaping its future by creating continuous new value”.
Contact me to keynote at your next leadership conference or executive retreat, book one of my popular 90-minute "pick Geoff’s brains" sessions for senior executives, or tailor a custom coaching package for your development as a future-fit culture catalyst.
Benoît B. Mandelbrot (1924–2010) was a Poland-born French/American mathematician known as the father of fractal geometry. The quote is from a conversation with Edge in 2004.
