“Hacking” companies and organizations

One of the congenital disabilities of organizations that we have inherited from the industrial age is their incrementalism, their inability to introduce “disruptive” innovations in their management or business model. Despite having the necessary resources to change the rules of the game for their competitors, they rarely do so, it is normal for them to be surprised by original innovations of new emerging companies in their sector. They live trapped in their legacy, seeking operational efficiency and rarely change in the absence of a deep crisis, which really questions their fundamental beliefs. Interestingly, most CEOs seem resigned to this fact, they continue to demand obedience and diligence from employees, but most do not know how to connect with the collective intelligence of their organization, with the initiative, imagination and passion of their collaborators. Just as the proprietary software of yesteryear was incapable of seeing the emerging needs of its users, and entrusted its future to the captivity of its customers, the management “model” of many large companies is limited to doing things “as they have always been done here”. So they are unable to adapt to the changing needs of a digital world, where new users no longer buy products but are looking for unique experiences and personalized relationships with their favorite brands. We don’t have many alternatives: reinvention or irrelevance. Just as innovative developers knew how to hack and improve many of the proprietary applications, make software an open paradigm and turn endless possibilities into realities. As innovators in management, if we want to build organizations that are fit for the future, we have to “hack” our organizations, go to the depths of their structures and question the basic principles that have been encapsulated in management creeds, and that prevent us from interacting with the new reality and adapting to the future. In the hacker culture sharing creates value, its principles are those of the social web – openness, transparency and collaboration, its ethics are based on questioning how things are done and creating new ways of doing based on work processes where openness, community and collaboration are the basis of added value. If we are serious about facing the enormous challenges of a

In the global economy and a connected society, we have to start by hacking the culture of our organizations, people need the freedom to question legacy, break rules, take risks, launch experiments and follow their passions. By “hacking” our organizations, challenging their fundamental beliefs, we will be able to build organizations capable of exploiting old certainties and exploring new realities. The recipe is very simple, it is about connecting with collective intelligence and making leadership and innovation everyone’s job.

20 Questions to Get Started

1. Are we changing at the speed of the world around us? What are the fundamental questions that will define the future of our organizations?
2. How to deal with Uncertainty? How to plan when we cannot anticipate the future? How to manage the risks of the new context?
3. How can they build the new maps to navigate the digital economy? How can they take advantage of the opportunity to innovate, differentiate and grow?
4. How do we resolve the clash between personal needs for freedom and autonomy and the organizational needs for prediction and control?
5. Is there really an alternative to centralizing, specializing, and pigeonholing people into standard jobs and roles?
6. Can we find more efficient ways to manage our organizations based on trust?
7. What exactly makes an organization adaptable or not? How to stay competitive in uncertainty?
8. How can we build new organizations that are agile, more open, participatory, and transparent? Why do we need to give our organizations a new social dimension?
9. Is hierarchy the natural order in a connected society? What is the emerging order in social media?
10. What is the difference between hierarchy and redarky? Will redarky replace the current hierarchical model as an emergent order?
11. What are the properties of the redarky? Where is the true boundary between hierarchy and redarchy?
12. How to connect with collective intelligence in our organizations? How to make leadership and innovation everyone’s job?
13. How to build a bimodal organization capable of exploiting old certainties and exploring new realities?
14. Is my company prepared to operate in such a complex and changing environment? What are the main internal transformation challenges that I have to address?
15. How to manage change in the Age of Collaboration? How is hierarchical change different from network change?
16. What part of our cultural DNA should we keep, what part should we discard and what new capacities do we need to address the future?
17. How to manage change in the Age of Collaboration? How is hierarchical change different from network change?
18. How can you innovate without a critical spirit? How can you unleash the innovative power of the people who deal with customers on a daily basis?
19. What can we learn from entrepreneurs? How is exploitative logic different from entrepreneurial logic?
20. How can I make entrepreneurship a way of life? How can I stay competitive in a changing world?

Exploring the limits

To find the answers to these key questions that will define the future of our companies in an increasingly uncertain and complex world, we must, as true “hackers”, explore and seek the limits of the organizations inherited from the industrial era, introduce disruptive practices and radical changes in the way things are done and reinvent traditional management practices based on the principles of the Social Web: Collaboration, transparency and networking. Sharing, really, creates value. These were the topics discussed in the excellent UNIA Summer Course held at the La Rábida Campus, and directed by José María Gasalla and Isabel Tovar García in which I had the opportunity to participate. I attach my contribution to the debate.