Checkpoint episode with Lisa Gansky: Ecosystems – between the “no more” and the “not yet”

Podcast notes

This is a “checkpoint” episode where we talk to Lisa about what we’ve been discovering so far in the research for the Whitepaper and get her valuable take focusing on the role of incumbents in adapting to a fast-changing world. She talks about the emerging space between the “no more” and “not yet”. In this in-between space where most of the potential to re-invent organizing seems to lay, ecosystems appear to be a candidate driver of transformation for incumbents, although questions abound regarding their maturity.

•  Follow Lisa Gansky on Twitter: https://twitter.com/instigating
•  Subscribe to “Instigate this” curated by Lisa: https://paper.li/instigating?edition_id=1f138460-82ac-11ea-a01c-0cc47a0d1605#/

Some references mentioned in the show:

• Marc Andreesen, “It’s time to build”, https://a16z.com/2020/04/18/its-time-to-build/
• Bonnita Roy in Rebel Wisdom’s series on Collective Sensemaking: https://youtu.be/XxLMavVsZxc
• Slavoj Zizek on Coronavirus: “Things will not go back to normal”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfWIMPredyI&feature=youtu.be
• Ichak Adizes, Organisational Life Cycle: https://adizes.com/lifecycle/
• Reporting 3.0 “Maturation Matrix”: https://medium.com/@r3dot0/introducing-the-r3-0-maturation-matrix-6652047a0ba8
• MIT Covid data Observatory: https://c19observatory.media.mit.edu/

Key Insights

1. The ability of incumbents to cope with a world that is moving faster than our ability to learn is questionable — especially those with a culture of value capturing rather than open to curiosity and provocation. In this space, ecosystems may provide a bridge between the “no more” and the “not yet” of organising in the 21st century, yet they probably need more tools and processes for fast and scalable learning.

2. There are interesting ways to look at the “not yet” and build models that leverage on existing tools (e.g. DLTs, commons protocols), but which also uses a process of empathetic listening and are able to hold diversity and complexity. There is a fine dance here between finding global trans-cultural standards while respecting cultures that are inherently different from Western modernity.

3. We seem to have as many questions as answers about the evolving nature of organising, which leads us to the intuition that a kind of observatory — a coalition of participants that start to share what we’re seeing — can be of help to build a language and an understanding of what we’re addressing in this transition from “no more” to “not yet”.

? Boundaryless Conversations Podcast is about exploring the future of large scale organising by leveraging on technology, network effects and shaping narratives. We explore how platforms can help us play with a world in turmoil, change, and transformation: a world that is at the same time more interconnected and interdependent than ever but also more conflictual and rivalrous.