Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?

by Aaron Dignan

Unfortunately, in their desire to be agile (with a lowercase a), many firms have attempted to do Agile (with an uppercase A). They have traded a goal for an orthodoxy—adopting the methods and certifications but not the theory behind them. And this is fatal. Because an agile workflow is not an operating system.

When it comes to people, in many ways you get what you design for. Evolutionary Organizations know that if you treat people like mercenaries, they will become mercenaries. Treat them like all-stars and they will become all-stars. To be People Positive is to assume and expect the best of everyone.

Fractal Purpose. Every organization has a purpose. But not every organization ensures that its purpose is fractal—that it shows up at every level.

Steering Metrics. Legacy Organizations are obsessed with measurement, often using it as a form of control—to find and punish weak performance. But when we obsess over metrics, we fall victim to Goodhart’s law, which states that a measure that becomes a target ceases to be a good measure.6 Why? Because human beings will manipulate the situation in order to move the numbers. Instead, we should think of metrics as guides for steering toward our purpose.