Someone Hit the Reset Button
Charlie Grantham and Jim Ware examine the future of work
There is a new wave of fundamental change that is sweeping over the old industrial order of our world. We believe that what is occurring—what has everyone’s thoughts and fears all twisted up—is more than a routine swing in the “business cycle.”
No less an expert than Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, said it best: “Someone hit the re-set button.” As a result a “re-structuring” of many industries is coming. And plans to be specific about how that will happen. First, however, we need to examine the basic characteristics of organizational transformation. How do you know it when you see it? Fundamental transformation of anything has four basic dimensions: it is irreversible, it is substantive, it changes your identity, and it shifts the purpose of the organization (in this case). Let’s look at each of these in turn. Transformations are irreversible. We’re now changing in ways that go beyond mere shifts in opinion. The interaction of technological, personal, and organisational forces is giving us an education that forces us to view the world in a completely different way. At the end of this transformation, we won’t be able to give up the new knowledge and revert to our old ways of knowing. Butterflies can’t go back and become caterpillars. There is no “wayback” machine. Transformations are substantive. Transformations create new realities that are greater than the sum of their parts. For example, you don’t transform by moving into positions of more power and authority; you move into positions of substantively different, often richer, kinds of power and authority. Kings evolve into presidents, CEO’s into talent managers.
Transformations change who you are in the world. If everything around you is changing in substantive and irreversible ways, then who you are in the world must be changing too. Quite simply, you are called something different. New systems emerge from combinations of technologies, people, and organizations that have never been connected before, meaning that you’re now part of something completely new. Identity is a most powerful force in our lives; all transformations involve a change in identity. Key to this new way of being in the world is who you are in the world in relation to others. In the world we’re transforming into people that are no longer defined by their “job” or their company affiliation; they are defined—and they define themselves—by the social network(s) in which they are enmeshed. Transformation shifts your purpose. Right now we see an emerging awareness that there is an interconnected web of existence. The important question then becomes: What is your purpose within that web? From an economic point of view purpose today must include more than “commercial profitability.” Now it also includes environmental and moral considerations.
In a community context perspective transformation means not trying to re-live the past. General Motors did get stuck in its past; its executives tried for far too long to maintain a business model that was right for a long-bygone era. And ghost towns are examples of entire communities that didn’t grasp the “irreversibility” principle that characterises fundamental transformations.
The substantive part of transformation means that everything is connected to everything else. You can’t just “re-engineer” one part of the organisation, or make improvements in one part of the community infrastructure. When the market shifts, so must your development processes, your distribution systems, your “back room” support processes, and your customer-facing activities. How many companies today still send out paper invoices? Is your company or community the one that puts the no in innovation? Let’s review these ideas one more time. Who you are. That’s brand, pure and simple. Brands change, names change, logos change. What’s the new identity? Maybe if GM had changed its brand (and its core identity and its skill sets and processes) into a “personal transportation product/service company” instead an automobile manufacturer it might have survived the transformation of its industry. Caterpillars are bugs, so what are butterflies?
Purpose. Purpose must now include more than profit for companies, and, for communities, be more than simply a place to consume goods and services. And it has to be about stewardship of the environment and investment in structures and processes that build social capital. The fundamental economic and social changes we are experiencing right now clearly have the basic, knowable characteristics of irreversibility, substance, shifting our identities, and expanding our purpose. Organisations and institutions (and even individuals) who aren’t embracing these changes and using them as an opportunity to prepare for the future are destined to fail.
Who is next in line for the bankruptcy parade? Is your town the last stop on the stage line to oblivion? Next we’ll take a closer look at what this transformation will look like in commerce, government, and education, as well as the arts, the media, and local communities.
Drivers of Change
Johann Gutenberg’s printing press was by far the most significant change of its time. It shifted the world at large from an oral means of communication to printed, reproducible documents. Today we are shifting again—from one-to-one analog communication to digital mediums that allow two-way communication with almost anyone who is online in a variety of formats (e.g. YouTube).We are also moving into an era where interations and experiences and even senses can exist solely online with no real world equivelant (e.g. SecondLife). In addition, our mental energy has moved from being largely automatic (simply reacting to external stimuli) to becoming formally conscious of our place in a larger social context. We believe we are now at the threshold of shifting from ego-based behavior to purpose-directed behavior. That means that with the Internet we’re now learning who we each are (e.g. Facebook), all for the purpose of discovering why we are (e.g. communities of interest supported by tools like Ning, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the other social networking sites). Communication technologies have transformed human society several times in the past, and they are doing it once again.
The Deep Dive
Today we are creating a dynamic, “virtual” environment in which we “live” every day—including many of our social networks. Not only do we have access to many things outside our direct experience, but because of that we must also learn to question the authenticity of almost all of what we see, hear, and sense. We’re now moving into an age in which the media actually lets us construct the environments that we want to be in and experience.
Fueled by the power of the printed word, governments moved from feudal communities to empires to nation states. Now those nations are struggling once again to take the next step in their evolution, both as independent cultures and as members of a global community. What does it mean to be a “global citizen?” The Internet is at the heart of this evolution.
The last Presidential election in the United States was a prime example. US voters could not avoid taking into account how the candidates and the issues “played out” in other countries, and many non-US citizens played active roles in the online conversations about both the issues and the candidates. And recently the United States Supreme Court ruled that corporations—including those with non-US owners—are free to spend as much money as they want to influence US election campaigns.
In the 15th century economies shifted from agrarian to mercantile models that were designed to speed up the pace of transactions in the rapidly expanding marketplace. This mercantilism matured into a capitalist structure supported by democratic forms of government. Now the old economic rules of mercantilism, based on scarcity, ownership of private property, and economies of scale are running out of gas. (Don’t worry; we’ll come back to this assertion at a later date.) Something new is emerging as global financial markets converge and electronic commerce brings everyone into what may soon be a unified planetary marketplace. Education has undergone, and is once again undergoing, equally dramatic change. The informal, almost pre-literate, form of education in the Middle Ages gave way to a centralized structure built upon the printed word and books. The 15th-century model of education (what we now call the University) was geographically centralised; students traveled physically to specific places—centers of learning—to get their education.
Today learning is becoming accessible to “students” wherever they may live or work (and the whole concept of “student” has broadened to include just about everyone, of all ages, all the time). Earlier, basic education was the private responsibility first of families and then of local communities. Now, however, we believe that all sorts of learning venues, funding models, and methods will soon replace, or at least augment, existing public school systems. Education— beyond the very basic level needed just to survive— will be delivered by the extended communities and the work organizations to which we belong.
Lastly, our whole idea of community has changed and is changing once again. “Community” used to reflect the largely homogeneous views of a few relatively authoritarian religious institutions. The printed word began to pull apart those societal structures, and its impact was immediately seen in the way communities began splintering and differentiating. Many new communities arose, often espousing distinctive belief systems. During the Renaissance, many people gained the freedom to move physically into the communities that they wanted to belong to.
Now we have thousands of on-line, virtual “communities” that thrive completely independently of any one geographic location. We can reach out beyond our local neighborhoods to discover other people anywhere on the planet who share our interests, beliefs, fears, and desires. We can then use digital technologies of all kinds to establish communications directly with them and ultimately band together, first electronically and eventually even physically, as a market or political force, if we want to do so.
Why It Matters
Simply put, if somebody could have told people in the Middle Ages what was about to happen to their lives, they probably wouldn’t have believed any of it. The changes that were about to occur were quite simply beyond their capability to imagine. And we are convinced the same thing is true today.
We are at the very front end of an incredibly broad and fundamental transformation. And we all have the opportunity— and the responsibility—to look for emerging patterns and make important choices about how we shape the future, both individually and collectively. So, what are you going to do Monday morning?
