The Hierarchy Is Very Useful

Erik is an executive advisor on transformation and the future of work, leadership, and collaboration, and the author of ‘Teal Dots in an Orange World.’ We talk about how this 'new ways of working' movement is evolving, and in particular a positive trend that Erik calls 'fragmented organisations' that's happening because it's hard to scale self-managed or 'teal' practices and principles in a uniform way. Erik shares what he has observed, particularly in larger organisations, including challenges like interfacing with the outside world when you are a progressive organisation. Finally, we explore leadership and 'futures literacy' as an important skill. I love Erik's articulate and thoughtful style and I think this was a great sense-making conversation.

Resources:

• Erik’s book, ‘Teal Dots in an Orange World’
• The HBR article ‘Managing the whitespace’
• Bill Anderson talking about transformation at scale at Roche, on the Brave New Work podcast
• Related Leadermorphosis episodes:
• The episode with Peter Koenig about Source
• The episode with Tom Nixon about Source
• The books Erik mentioned:
• ‘Imaginable’ by Jane McGonical
• ‘Transforming the Future: Anticipation in the 21st Century’ by Riel Miller et al.