Articles, thoughts and ideas

The evolution of Technology and AI will only emphasis what makes us human. What does make us human? What uniqueness do we have and bring?

My vision for the #futureofwork is less large corporate, more #SME.

Your organisation culture will be more important in the #futureofwork: the #humanvibe & #energizingvibe.

After a few lovely days away, enjoying Spanish sunshine, culture, and gastronomy I continue my #futureofwork journey!

I have focussed my vision on the larger trends that I think will appear around #organisationdesign, #leadership and the human factor in a world of #AI.

Today I want to talk about the relationship between AI and humans. Humans aren’t computers and computers aren’t humans.

I mentioned my vision around the knowledge-based-network-organisation, where organisations become communities.

Goldman Sachs predicts 300 million jobs will be lost or degraded by artificial intelligence. (Forbes, March 31, 2023).

I hear the term #futureofwork being used a lot, but nobody has yet to give me a clear vision of what the future of work will look like? Is the term becoming a fashionable, but meaningless buzzword? A hollow term?

It is such a fascinating and interesting evolution on how we work and how work is organised.

I always say that 5 average Pete’s do not compensate for 1 amazing John. And here is where organisation design in today’s organisation becomes really interesting (and fascinating, but I guess I am a bit of a HR nerd!).

Between the pyramid and the flat organisation we witnessed the matrix organisation, driven by increasing complexity and continuous need for doing things better, faster, more efficiently.

I mentioned in Part 1 lean manufacturing and business process re-engineering (BPR), and the start of the transition from task to talent.

Designing and structuring organisations for todays and tomorrow’s world, it is worth understanding the journey we have been on and the evolution in #organisationdesign, and what drives it.

Acknowledging why core skills are important is a first step. Understanding what the core skills for growth are, is a second step. But how to embed core skills for growth into the organisation?

#Criticalthinking ; #resilience ; #collaboration ; #selfmanagement are the core skills for growth I have discussed. Of course, you can add more. But why are they so important in today’s organisations?

I believe self-management is increasingly important, especially in knowledge-based-network-organisations.

Everybody talks about collaboration, but few organisations define more specifically what it means for them. It is written on the top of the corporate values list, but sometimes I see little proof of it truly being ingrained in the culture of the organisation.

Growing without resilience is not possible. Resilience means the ability to cope with setbacks, to be able to get up and continue after a fall, or a challenge. It means bouncing back, evaluating your setback and becoming strong and wiser because of it.

#criticalthinking in organisations is essential to create a #collectivebrain build on #sharedknowledge and combined expertise. When an organisation taps into the collective knowledge, skills, talents and experiences it will be #agile , robust, innovative, and successful.

Criticizing versus being critical. A big and important distinction. Unfortunately, sometimes people criticize rather than being critical. Criticizing is deconstructive, being critical is constructive.

Growing without #criticalthinking is not possible. Whether at individual level or organisational level, critical thinking is essential to advance, grow, develop, innovate, learn.

Upscaling is about a journey. Vision is a destination. Strategy is the roadmap.

For me, #criticalthinking is the number one skill for everybody involved in upscaling. Absolutely 100%. Ask me why, and I probably won’t stop talking for a long time. Today I will try to be short and give you my 2 cents on why critical thinking is particularly important for organisations who are upscaling.

A #startup business will run after every potential prospect and grab every opportunity. A #scaleup is inclined to do the same, when it shouldn't. To be successful a scale-up needs to make difficult decisions and have the courage, wisdom, and clarity to know when to say "NO".

When moving from the #startup to the #scaleup phase there is a high risk of creating pressure points. I have often observed key employees who played a pivotal role in the success of the start-up, getting burned-up when scaling-up.

A start-up or a scale-up are very different. In a start-up you have a blank canvas to design all the policies, processes, culture, infrastructure. For a start-up it is essential to put the “wheels on the bus”, for HR this means ensuring people actually have proper contracts, that there is a handbook, #onboarding, a #performancemanagement process and other basic policies. It’s a great opportunity to implement HR ideals that fit for the organisation.

Upscaling and agility. A delicate relationship. As a #startup the organisation was extremely agile, it is what made it successful. Now the organisation is upscaling. Is it going to lose its magic trait? As the push for infrastructure, processes and policies increases, is the organisation going to lose its agility?

Upscaling is about multiplying, not about additions. It’s about achieving more with less. It is about one leader growing multiple leaders, multiplying impact, skills, capacity, output, results.

It is a common problem that while you are in the middle of a #hiring drive, the individual performance of your employees will suffer. To avoid this, you sometimes need the courage to put on the brakes (temporarily) and ensure that the infrastructure, your processes, culture, and resources don’t evolve disproportionately from one another with the risk of being completely out of balance from one another.

When upscaling, a strategic people roadmap is crucial to ensure that the organisation has the right #talent, culture, and capabilities to support its growth objectives. The Roadmap ensures all key areas evolve in unison to support overall growth. Unbalanced growth, uneven growth in one area at the expense of another area, will not result in achieving the overall growth objectives. It will turn upscaling into an inefficient and costly operation.

Upscaling, what is it really? Very straight forward its about increasing numbers, doing things bigger, with bigger results, going from a team of 30 to a company of 300, with more clients, a higher turnover, increased profit.