The Paradox of Organizational Systems

Building teams for a rapidly changing world

What is it about systems of organization that make people become stupid?
No, there’s no way…
Yup!
I am just kinda struck by the history of special forces, business innovation, and creatives in the world of fashion, design, art, music, in which the “new” has to come from outside of the “old”. Somehow the old — the mainstream systems of working with people — constrains and eventually drains people’s capacity to think, talk, and act, in ways that would really solve problems.

Somehow, when groups of people come together, power distributes itself hierarchically and rules become enforced. These structures become self-reinforcing: we see this in business organizations, when executive teams are unable to respond to threats, or even seize new opportunities, because of the gravitational force of group stupidity.

Yet, we continue… creating organizations that continue to reproduce these very fault lines, even while knowing that they are Titanic in nature — yes, the ship.