“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:
Make it happen
My website provides FREE resources to help you create a future-fit organisational culture of innovation, agility, and adaptiveness. 2
Contact me on LinkedIn to keynote at your next conference or executive retreat, book one of my popular 90-minute “pick Geoff’s brains” sessions for senior executives, or tailor custom coaching support 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.
Check out these FREE videos, these FREE articles, and this FREE download of my 22-page Five Fatal Habits report.
