we need new frameworks to understand and anticipate what’s coming next.
One of those frameworks is known as emergence. Up until recently, it’s been used primarily to explain natural systems. Basically, the term describes how, when individual agents interact en masse according to a set of simple rules, highly complex structures and behaviors emerge.
Bureaucracies were necessary when information was scarce. But in The Emergent Era, bureaucratic structures act as bottlenecks for information and inevitably throttle change. Organizations should instead use these six concepts to adapt to life in The Emergent Era.
- Organize around information flows; ditch hierarchy and bureaucracy.
- Empower individuals
- Replace long lists of rules with a good M.O.
- Establish feedback loops. They are critical.
- Get Used to Living in the “In Between.”
- Tap into the power of minds and machines together.
Source: A top GE executive says organizations must prepare for the “Emergent Era” — Quartz