How organisations are changing.

Just over a decade ago, I published the table in figure 1 to describe how organisations were shifting from a traditional form to a set of next generation behaviours. Whilst the table was welcome in some quarters, it was generally met with derision and comments of “this is just for startups”. Not that I’m bitter … much … gronda gronda.

I’m glad to say that a decade la ter, that many have already started their journey to the next generation or at least acknowledge it as their future. So, given that I’m a glutton for punishment, I thought I’d repeat the whole process again and see if we can’t find a new “next generation” or in other words, a next “next generation”. Yes, evolution stands still for no-one and whilst cell based organisational structures, open source as a weapon, chaos engines, continuous deployment and learning from ecosystems sounds cutting edge … it was … a decade ago.

I say find because the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed and hence this is an exercise in finding existing differences in corporate populations and not pontificating cause and effects through technology change to “discover” a future. I’m not a fan of crystal balls and the endless line of futurist gurus willing to read your palms if you cross theirs with enough silver. I happen to like things that exist, even if it is only in prototype form.

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