Creating Resilient Orgs: Serendipity, Autonomy, and Creative Flexibility

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Empowering a 'slime mold-like' model within a large organization involves creating space for serendipity and autonomy. The concept of the 20% time, as seen in Google, allowed for such space, despite being a cultural myth. It enabled the formation of a high trust, diverse social network within the organization, facilitating better information flow. Additionally, it provided an avenue for pursuing lower priority or passion projects, which could lead to unexpected and valuable innovations over time. This approach acknowledges the need for flexibility and accommodates the potential for valuable, unplanned outcomes.

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Why do organizations get slower as they grow? What can organizations learn from slime molds? What are the advantages of top-down organization versus bottom-up organization, and vice versa? How can organizations encourage serendipity? What use are doorbells in jungles? Why is it so hard for organizations to set a "north star" that is at once plausible, coherent, and good?

Alex Komoroske has over a decade of experience in the tech industry as a product manager focusing on platform- and ecosystem-shaped problems. While at Google, he worked on Chrome's Web Platform PM team, Augmented Reality in Google Maps, and Ambient Computing. He's fascinated by how to navigate the emergent complexity within organizations to achieve great results. You can find some of his public writing at komoroske.com.

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