Boundaryless Conversations Podcast

Today we explore an initiative that looks into transformation and the micro-macro dynamics of organizing from a thresholds and allocations perspective. We’re joined by Bill Baue, Senior Director at r3.0, and Ralph Thurm, Co-Founder & Managing Director at r3.0 – a not-for-profit platform which promotes Redesign for Resilience and Regeneration.   Founded in 2012, r3.0 connects a global community of “Positive Mavericks” around its “work ecosystem” that focuses on transcending incrementalism to trigger necessary transformations that enact living systems principles. The work of r3.0 explores responses to the ecological and social collapses humanity is experiencing, in order to achieve a thriving, regenerative and distributive economy and society.   Bill is a true expert when it comes to sustainability thresholds, thriveability, and online stakeholder engagement. He has co-founded several enterprises, including Sustainability Context Group, Sea Change Radio, and Currnt.    Ralph is a leading professional in sustainable innovation and strategy, operational sustainability, sustainability change management, sustainability reporting, transformation and thriveability. He is also the Founder of A|HEAD|ahead and Managing Director at OnCommons, the not-for-profit home of r3.0.   We are super excited to share this interview with you as we dig into how r3.0 applies a fractal, multi-scalar and bioregional lens to understanding transitions towards a regenerative and distributive global economy and society. Tune in as we explore organizational entanglement, creating value at a systems level, and how Bill and Ralph look at global governance.   Remember that you can always find transcripts, full show notes and key highlights of the episode on our Medium publication: https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/Podcast-S2E14-Bill-Baue-Ralph-Thurm    To find out more about Bill’s and Ralph’s work:   > Bill Baue’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbaue    > Ralph Thurm’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/aheadahead1    > Website: https://www.r3-0.org/    > r3.0 Blueprints: https://www.r3-0.org/projects/   > 8th International r3.0 Conference 2021: https://conference2021.r3-0.org/  > The UNRISD-r3.0 project “Thresholds of Transformation”: https://www.r3-0.org/project/unrisd/   Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast   Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music   Recorded on 17 March 2021.

Today’s guest, Nora Bateson, is a unique thinker that as a company we’ve been following for a while now. From invisible assumptions, to entanglement and trans-contextual organising, this conversation explores what organizing in complexity truly means for organisations and the relationships taking place within and between them.    Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, facilitator and educator, as well as President of the International Bateson Institute based in Sweden. Her work asks the question “how can we improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?”. Nora wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary, ‘An Ecology of Mind’, a portrait of her father, Gregory Bateson. Her work brings the fields of biology, cognition, art, anthropology, psychology, and information technology together into a study of the patterns in ecology of living systems. Her book, ‘Small Arcs of Larger Circles’ is a revolutionary personal approach to the study of systems and complexity, and the core text of the Harvard University LILA program 2017-18. Her new book, ‘Warm Data’, will be released in 2020 by Triarchy Press.   Tune in to your conversation with Nora as we dive deeper into systemic accountability, “Warm Data” practices, and the power of context.   Remember that you can always find transcripts and key highlights of the episode on our Medium publication: https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/Podcast-S2E13-Nora-Bateson   To find out more about Nora’s work:   > Website: https://norabateson.wordpress.com/ > Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoraBateson  > Medium: https://norabateson.medium.com/  > Wordpress: https://norabateson.wordpress.com/  > The International Bateson Institute: https://batesoninstitute.org/   Other references and mentions:   > Nora Bateson, Small Arcs of Larger Circles: Framing Through Other Patterns, 2016: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Arcs-Larger-Circles-Patterns/dp/1909470961   > Organizations as Architectures for Complexity — with Joe Norman: https://stories.platformdesigntoolkit.com/organizations-as-architectures-for-complexity-with-joe-norman-5eebf5d1362e   > Joe Norman, “Generating wholes”: http://jwnorman.com/?p=4948     > Boundaryless Whitepaper, New Foundations of Platform-Ecosystem Thinking — Designing Products and Organizations for a changing world, 2020: https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/DOWNLOAD-NF   > Transition Network: https://transitionnetwork.org/  > Warm Data Lab: https://warmdatalab.net/   > Warm Data Podcast: https://www.warmdatapodcast.com/   Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast   Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music   Recorded on 12 March 2021.

We often view leadership as such an individual role, but does it have to be? Today’s guest, Aaron Dignan, shares a radically different approach to leadership as something that needs to be more coherent and inclusive with everyone involved. Through the power of consent and purpose, organizations can drive real systemic change.   Aaron Dignan is the founder of The Ready, a global organizational transformation and coaching practice, where he helps both large and small companies adopt new forms of self-organization and dynamic teaming. Over the last ten years, Aaron has studied organizations and teams with a new way of working that prioritizes adaptivity and autonomy over efficiency and control.    Aaron is the co-host of the Brave New Work podcast, an active angel investor and helps build partnerships between the startups and end-ups he advises. He’s also a co-founder of Responsive.org, and has sat on advisory boards for GE, American Express, PepsiCo, and Cooper Hewitt. He is the author of Game Frame and Brave New Work.   In this conversation, we’re not afraid to go deep as we look into a boundaryless future. Tune in as we explore how The Ready funds new ideas in the business, the role of “micro-socialist” experiments in an organization, and how to balance your personal development and uniqueness alongside the development of an organization.  Remember that you can find the show notes and transcripts from all our episodes on our Medium publication: https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/Podcast-S2E12-Aaron-Dignan   To find out more about Aaron’s work:   > Website: https://theready.com/ > Website: https://www.bravenewwork.com/  > Aaron’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/aarondignan  > The Ready’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/theready  > Podcast: https://www.bravenewwork.com/podcast   Other references and mentions:   > Aaron Dignan, Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?, 2019: https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-Work-Reinvent-Organization/dp/0525536205   > “Brave New Work and Capitalism‬”, on the Brave New Work Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brave-new-work-and-capitalism/id1488554600?i=1000506063704   > Dark Matter Labs’ “Letter to Our Future”, on how they think about organizing their work: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/amsterdam-2019-2020-letter-to-our-future-dbd67a035ffe    > Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture:,https://www.amazon.com/Unsettling-America-Culture-Agriculture/dp/0871568772    > Participatory City: http://www.participatorycity.org/    Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast   Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music   Recorded on 27 January 2021.

Wardley maps are a key feature of platform strategy design - and the person who invented these maps is joining us on the podcast today: Simon Wardley.

Today we’re joined by a true legend in the space of strategy, innovation and management: Rita Gunther McGrath. Rita is widely recognized as a premier expert on leading innovation and growth during times of uncertainty. She is a best-selling author, speaker, and a longtime professor at Columbia Business School.   Rita has received the number one achievement award for strategy from the prestigious Thinkers50 and has been consistently named one of the world’s Top 10 management thinkers in its bi-annual ranking.    Join our conversation as we explore the positive and negative impacts of inflection points for organizations and markets. We uncover discovery-driven leadership, irreversible versus reversible decisions, responsibility towards local communities as a key principle for organizing value creation, and much more.   This discussion testifies the true depth of the rabbit hole of the future of organizing!   Remember that you can find the show notes and transcripts from all our episodes on our Medium publication: https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/Podcast-S2E10-RitaMcGrath   To find out more about Rita’s work:   > Website: https://www.ritamcgrath.com/ > Twitter: https://twitter.com/rgmcgrath > LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritamcgrath/ > YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/rgmcgrath > Medium: https://rgmcgrath.medium.com/   Other references and mentions:   > Boundaryless whitepaper (2020), New Foundations of Platform-Ecosystem Thinking — Designing Products and Organizations for a changing world, https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/DOWNLOAD-NF   > Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, Chris Yeh, The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age, 2014: https://www.amazon.com/Alliance-Managing-Talent-Networked-Age/dp/1625275773   > Healthy San Francisco: https://healthysanfrancisco.org/   > Peter Turchin, “Intra-Elite Competition: A Key Concept for Understanding the Dynamics of Complex Societies”, 2016: http://peterturchin.com/cliodynamica/intra-elite-competition-a-key-concept-for-understanding-the-dynamics-of-complex-societies/    > Rita McGrath, Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen, 2019: https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Around-Corners-Inflection-Business/dp/0358022339/   Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast   Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music   Recorded on 12 January 2021.

Today we have a fabulous duo of Future of Work experts with us, Albert Canigueral and Laetitia Vitaud. We chat about some of the key evolutions in this space, and how platforms contribute to crystalize trends in the continued unbundling of jobs.      Albert Canigueral is Ouishare Connector for Spain and Latin America. In 2011 he founded the blog Consumo Colaborativo, becoming a reference in the platform economy in the Spanish-speaking world. He recently published the book ‘El trabajo ya no es lo que era’ – ‘Work Is Not What It Used To Be’ – a book about the future of work and workers. In short, he works as an explorer, consultant and disseminator in the field of platform economics. He is currently mainly focused on the future of work, the impact of digital platforms in cities and regulatory innovations.   Laetitta Vitaud is a teacher-turned-entrepreneur and, like Albert, a key reference - both writer and speaker - about the future of work and consumption. She has her own newsletter about the future of work with a feminist perspective, Laetitia@work, is editor-in-chief of the HR media of Welcome to the Jungle and leads a media called Nouveau Départ with her partner and husband Nicolas Colin, who we previously had on the podcast. Laetitia is working with clients on how organizations, management, work space, and social protection are impacted by the unbundling of jobs and the empowerment of freelancers.    In our conversations, we cover a lot of ground, where we focus on the apparent “innovation dilemma” that results from the gap in how the concept of work is evolving and the systems in place to protect a new age of independent workers with fragmented “careers”.    We explore how worker tech and different scales of collective arrangements help platform workers gain agency and rebundle traditional worker benefits.    While governments often seem helplessly stuck in the old paradigm, digital transformation is leading to new modes of organising at scale that depart from the industrial efficiency-based model, with workers starting to take matters in their own hands to organise collectively.    Remember that you can find the show notes and transcripts from all our episodes on our Medium publication: https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast-S2E9-Vitaud-Cañigueral To find out more about their work: > Albert’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlbertCanig    > Laëtitia’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vitolae    > Albert’s Website: https://www.albertcanigueral.com/    > Laëtitia’s Website: https://laetitiavitaud.com/    > Laëtitia’s Newsletter: https://laetitiaatwork.substack.com/    > Albert Cañigueral, El trabajo ya no es lo que era: Nuevas formas de trabajar, otras maneras de vivir, 2020 https://www.amazon.co.uk/El-trabajo-que-era-trabajar-ebook/dp/B08DT67CG8/     Other references and mentions:   > Albert Cañigueral, The Digital Labour Market Under Debate, 2018: https://cotec.es/media/COTEC_PIA_Ouishare_WorkerTech_EN_ExecutiveSummary.pdf    > Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain: https://iwgb.org.uk/   > Mastercard’s Digital Payments & Labs, Mastercard Labs for Financial Inclusion, and White Paper Media Consulting, The Gig Economy in East Africa, 2020: https://newsroom.mastercard.com/mea/files/2020/09/The-Gig-Economy-in-East-Africa-White-Paper.pdf    > Happy Dev: https://happy-dev.fr/en/   > Cosme Collectif: https://collectif-cosme.com/projets/    > MyWay Spain: https://mywayspain.es/   > Hoxby: https://hoxby.com/   Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast    Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music    Recorded on 5 January 2021.

In this episode we are speaking Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder and U.S. CEO of Mirakl, a global leader in online marketplace solutions. Since graduating from HEC in Paris in 2001, Adrien's career has been focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and disruption. His background in corporate finance and management consulting has allowed him to support top Fortune 1000 companies in their strategic growth and transformation initiatives, including creating and leading FNAC's marketplace from 2008 to 2011. A serial digital entrepreneur, Adrien has always been driven by the desire to invent tomorrow's economy: All Instant, a NY-based Instant Messaging platform sold in 2003, and SplitGames, an online video games marketplace, sold to FNAC in 2008. Along with co-founder Philippe Corrot, Adrien has built and led winning teams across the globe, created hundreds of jobs, and generated billions in sales for customers. In our boundaryless conversation, we cover the platform revolution from many angles, from how companies tackle digitalisation to how platforms contribute to breaking boundaries in space and time in an age of full information transparency. We also explore the necessary mindshifts, for example transcending the idea of competition, and realising that as a platform you need to "earn the right" to serve an ecosystem, turning competition into partnership.We also explore more generally what it means for brands to find a place in an API first, modularized economy, where suppliers and customers are aggregated and explain why the future of commerce may be in niches that require brands to meddle with the economy profoundly, leaving an opportunity space for incumbents that can transform as he cannot remotely shape everything directly from San Francisco. Adrien talks about some exciting examples among Mirakl's own clients, including members of the "platform pioneer club", where peer learning, opportunities to "plug in" to the ecosystem, and creating a sense of belonging are key. As a platform player, you can essentially choose to be "anything in the value chain", and that's an exciting future outlook. Remember that you can find the show notes and transcripts from all our episodes on our Medium publication: https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast-S2E8-Adrien-Nussenbaum To find out more about Adrien's work: > Website: https://www.mirakl.com/  > LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anussenbaum  > Twitter: https://twitter.com/adriennus  Other references and mentions: > Mirakl Connect: https://www.mirakl.com/mirakl-connect/  > Stop Covid-19 Marketplace: https://stopcovid19.fr/  > Companies with platform businesses cases mentioned: AB InBev, Maison du Monde, 3M, Madewell > Aurora James' 15% pledge: https://www.forbes.com/sites/morgansimon/2020/12/21/aurora-james-is-helping-companies-invest-in-accountability-with-the-15-percent-pledge/?sh=2a56e3d78216  Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast  Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music  Recorded on 11 December 2020.

Today we’re talking to Robyn Scott, co-founder and CEO of Apolitical, a global learning network for public servants. The Apolitical Academy, Apolitical’s non-profit arm, helps young and traditionally excluded people run for political office.    Previously, Robyn co-founded OneLeap, an executive education company, and two southern African non-profits teaching coding and entrepreneurial skills to vulnerable youth, women, and prisoners. She has written a critically acclaimed memoir about growing up in Botswana. She has also worked for the Financial Times. She is an ambassador for the Access to Medicine Index, an advisor to the Responsible Mining Index, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She has a BSc in Bioinformatics from Auckland University and a Masters in Bioscience Enterprise from Cambridge University.   The team at Apolitical works passionately towards “fixing” the Democracy Flywheel on three levels: making politics a credible and trustworthy path, making the narrative around governments and civil servants one of talent and pride rather than “necessary evil”, and reviving interest among citizens in a democracy based on free-flowing and accurate information, where democracy is not “traded in” in return of quick fixes.    In our conversation, we talk about how Apolitical is working to facilitate peer learning among civil servants, creating a go-to marketplace for new ideas and innovations. Beyond that, we also explore emerging aggregation possibilities in the space of government platforms such as the potential to aggregate private sector suppliers to let the best emerge across the space.   We also talk about current tensions between the imagined “global village”, a trend of fragmentation and localism, and the fact that we won’t find all solutions in any of these extremes.    A very thought-worthy conversation about a sector that arguably has to yet reap all the benefits in a platforms and ecosystems world.    Remember that you can find the show notes and transcripts from all our episodes on our Medium publication: https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast-S2E7-Robyn-Scott    To find out more about Robyn’s work:   > Website: https://apolitical.co/   > LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robynscott    > Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobynScott  Other references and mentions:   > McKinsey Center for Government (MCG), Government productivity: Unlocking the $3.5 trillion opportunity: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/the-opportunity-in-government-productivity#    > Alison Gopnik, The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us about the Relationship Between Parents and Children, 2016: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardener-Carpenter-Development-Relationship-Children/dp/0374229708   > The Apolitical Academy https://www.apolitical.academy/   > Twitter: https://twitter.com/apoliticalco  Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast    Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music    Recorded on 15 December 2020.

Today we have the great pleasure of speaking to Juho Makkonen, CEO and co-founder of Sharetribe – and a common friend from the heydays of the onset of the sharing economy.

Today we’re talking to Professor Dave Snowden, the founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Cognitive Edge and Director of the Cynefin Centre Wales.