Category: Collaborative Age

The organization Revolution – the part 5 of the Manifesto is online!

Organizations – the core value producing institutions of the Industrial Age – will be fundamentally transformed. They will become OPEN and FLUID. Discover the new philosophy of organizations and how it will transform the world in part 5 of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto!

Fourth Revolution Manifesto part V cover

You can access the fourth part of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto – the ORGANIZATION REVOLUTION by clicking on the link. You can also read and share the document on Scribd – it has a great reader and can also be used as a backup if the above link does not work: the Fourth Revolution Manifesto – part V on Scribd .

Don’t hesitate to comment and bring in suggestions in the comments to this blog post!

Can’t wait to see the follow-up?

The next Part of the Fourth Revolution manifesto will be published around February 13.

We’ll dive deep into the consequences of the Fourth Revolution in institutions like government, education and intellectual property – the Institutions Revolution!

Share

The Fourth Revolution Blog on the organization revolution – retrospective

This is the week of the Organization Revolution. The Fourth Revolution Manifesto on the Organization Revolution will be published this week-end.

For those of you who might have missed earlier blogs, here are some links about organizations and the Fourth Revolution. May they inspire you to act today to help your organizations transform!

The organization needs to open itself

How can an organization mobilize the power of the ‘long tail’?

Management’s will to control everything needs to stop

A Revolution in organization management legitimacy

Why organizations don’t implement virtual social networks

Social networks is the foundation of organization’s value creation

The organization’s social network needs to become open to the outside

The organization tomorrow will be more compact. It will be open. It will be fluid. Are you ready?

Share

A great example of what developing countries can bring to the world

A great example of what developing countries can bring to the world is explained in the TED talk by Shahi Tharoor on India’s soft power. This great talk is a great example of how developing countries – India in this instance – could bring a different view and approach to the world.

It is also a great example to meditate on the power of the new cheap long distance interaction in the daily life of people, even in the poorest countries.

The interesting paradox is that Shashi Tharoor was finally dismissed from his political position because he was a bit too transparent in his usage of Twitter. Some institutions still have it hard to face modern realities – and Indian bureaucracy is certainly a great example of institutions that will fight modern technology to death.

Nevertheless the Fourth Revolution will prevail. This is the direction of history. Whether the road will be smooth or bumpy is another story. We all can decide on that.

Take the 20 minutes or so to listen to that enlightening talk. It is worth it. It might change your view of the world.

Share

Developed countries are joining the collaborative community

I just return from a trip in one of the World’s poorest countries – Laos (181th country on 229 for per capita GDP according to the CIA’s world factbook). A great country to visit!

What is always amazing in all these countries, on all continents, including Africa, is how well connected people are today. The tuk-tuk drivers and the women selling vegetables on the market all have their mobile phones – and chat often. Cybercafes with reasonably high speed internet dot the urban landscape.

More than that – I could book my internal flight tickets or hotels in advance on the web on very good quality websites.

Cheap long distance interactive communication not only empowers those in developed countries that have something to say but could not publish before (‘the power of the long tail’), it also empowers citizens of developing countries to contribute to the debate. To interact with each other. To open to the world. To contribute without being discriminated against, because in the virtual world, people are much more equal.

We should not underestimate the power of this new interaction. Opening to “developing” countries contribution will make us realize how much these countries have to bring to our too westernized vision of the world. The diversity of their views will be an eye opener. This will drastically shift our worldview.

Are we ready to listen to the developing countries’ people voices? Are we ready for the shift?

Share

How can we hope to understand the Collaborative Age?

We have been raised in the Industrial Age. Our parents lived in the core of the Industrial Age. Our mindset and world-view has been shaped by years and decades of Industrial Age formatting.

Revolutions take often at least one generation to spread, because it involves a drastic mindset change.

Embedded in our Industrial Age conditioning, how can we hope to get a glimpse, understand, the Collaborative world?

Only two approaches are possible.

  • Analyze previous Revolutions to understand typical constants and transformations, and extrapolate to the Fourth Revolution
  • Examine Fourth Revolution precursors and follow their direction towards the Collaborative Age.

The way to understanding the Collaborative Age is hard and dangerous. But it is necessary. Only by anticipating transformations can we thrive through them and find a meaning to the world.

Are you ready to go down the arduous path of trying to understand the Fourth Revolution?

Share

Chaos theory and your destiny

In the Industrial world, everything was linear and predetermined. The trajectory of a ball. The orbit of the planets.

Your life was determined too – by your childhood experiences and your genes, later converted in the format of a diploma. The past determined the present which determined the future, according to a deterministic process.

We now know that’s not the case. Chaos theory shows that the smallest event can change the future. Psychology shows that one can change her perception of the past.

It is the end of ‘the road to destiny’ reaching the horizon linearly. It is not even being at a crossroad of possible choices. It is not about taking the least used road versus the most.
trail of destiny
Today we are inside a wide space of possibles. We can trace our road in any direction. We don’t need to follow any example.

When do you start tracing your own trail?

Share

Social networks is the foundation of organization’s value creation

Social networks is the foundation of value creation in any organization.

social network

It has always been the case.

Today we can create virtual social networks that span continents and create a much denser connection between individuals.

Hence we have the capability to enhance significantly the flow of value created by the organization.

When do you implement a virtual social network in your organization?

Share

Why is personal purpose so important in the Collaborative world

In the Agricultural Age, purpose was often defined by society. You did was you were born to do.
In the Industrial Age, purpose was often defined by the organization. You did what the Corporation thought what was good for you.

In the Collaborative Age, nobody tells you anything. You choose in what direction you want to go. Personal direction and purpose is needed.

purposePurpose is closely linked to enthusiasm and motivation. Enthusiasm and motivation are central for accomplishment and success. Hence, personal purpose is the centerpiece of accomplishment.

Finding one’s purpose is one of the most difficult endeavors. Actually one cannot understand one’s purpose but on his last breath. As Richard Bach, a famous contemporary US writer says: “Here is a test to find whether your mission in life is finished: if you are alive, it isn’t”. Only at this point can life make sense.

We can still define intermediate objectives and temporary purposes that lead us on the way of our life. How do we do that ? Let’s listen to ancient wisdom:
“Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love” – Rumi, Persian poet, 13th century.
Whatever makes your heart beat, your thoughts develop enthusiastically, that can be a part of your purpose, and something worthwhile to aim into.

When do you start defining your present purpose?

When do you start living in accordance with your present purpose?

Share

Intellectual property will have to be deeply reviewed

Intellectual property is an invention of the Industrial Revolution.

copyright sign
It is a system aimed to promote creativity and publication of ideas, against a temporary monopoly on the usage of the invention.

Intellectual property is a very static protection. It works, but for incremental inventions.

It does not work for inventions that create a rupture. Patents were an impediment to the development of aircrafts and cars at the beginning of the 20th century. Ford had to fight against patent holders for the ‘automobile’ that wanted to keep the price of cars high.

There is an other way to take advantage of one’s innovation. It is to innovate faster than the competition. It is a dynamic protection. It requires forward movement all the time.

Beyond the Fourth Revolution, dynamic innovation will be key. The static intellectual property regime will have to be deeply transformed, or it will become useless.

Share

Career is an obsolete race in scarcity

Career comes from a Latin word meaning ‘competitive race’. It suggests competition, it suggests scarcity, it suggests linearity of the racing track, it suggests winners and loosers.

In the bureaucratic, hierarchical of the Industrial Age is was all about the race to the few coveted top positions. It was all about a linear work life in the same company, going higher or stabilizing at one’s “incompetence level”.

In the Industrial World it is all about the “rat race”. More money, more physical objects, more loans, requires more money, more work. Where is the enjoyment?

Beyond the Fourth Revolution we won’t even be able to understand the concept. It is all about going sideways, following one’s purpose. It is about a world of opportunities, a world of abundance. It is about a personal quest.

It is not any more a race in which only the elusive end result imports. It is all about the journey and enjoy it. The quest is more important than the goal.

When do you step down from the race?

Share

Manufacturing will become subsidized

In the world beyond the Fourth Revolution, Manufacturing will become subsidized, as Agriculture is subsidized today.

manufacturing assembly line

This is because Manufacturing will still be needed, but it’s relative value will be very small compared to the value created by long distance collaboration.

Workers of the Manufacturing industry will probably still represent a strong social force, like farmers today.

But the value they will create will diminish relative to the new value creation. For manufacturing workers to maintain a minimum standard of living, manufacturing will have to be subsidized.

Deindustrialization as an effect of globalization? It is rather an effect of the Fourth Revolution.

Share

A new leadership style needed: ‘mutual learning’

mutual learning leadership
The Fourth Revolution will bring in a new type of leadership. Beyond the previous types of leadership:

  • command and control leadership,
  • rational leadership,
  • tranformational leadership,

the new leadership style will be ‘mutual learning’. In this style, the leader is not supposed to be the reference for the Vision, or giving the direction. The team is mutually accountable and defines together their Vision.

Share