Organizations are the key to both the destruction and the regeneration of humanity and nature
Towards a new understanding of organizations, transformation, and transformational work (part 1)
Organizations are among mankind’s most potent social inventions. They can empower their members and allow us to create change and realize extraordinary things, for better or worse.
The crises we face are also a result of our organizations, how they operate, and how we understand and shape them.
We need to build organizations differently, focusing on at least three essential aspects:
I
Organizations are a space for humans to work together, profoundly shaping the life of everyone associated with them, from partners to clients, customers, and small producers at the end of the supply chain. Our organizations are usually based on outdated paradigms. They uphold the same destructive power structures we have to face in society. They are not empowering people, neither employees nor their clients. They are part of that social fabric that fundamentally holds us back from changing society.
Instead, organizations must be organized around agency. The space they create must be a space of empowerment, supporting everyone to realize their potential.
II
Organizations shape society on various levels, from family life to political governance. But by underestimating their own role in society, they contribute to dysfunction, isolation, and the destruction of our social fabric.
To create a social fabric that nourishes people and helps them thrive, we must reshape our organizations so that they understand the role they play and work collaboratively with all the communities they touch.
III
Organizations rely on resources to sustain their operations and produce products and services. By seeing resources as things we can extract, use, and discard, we fail to appreciate the inherent value of the natural world around us. This extractive mindset is at odds with nature, and it is one of the central causes of ecological harm.
We must reshape how our organizations interact with nature, shifting from exploitation to regeneration, and from commodification to respect. →
II How to build different organizations
The way we perceive and understand organizations defines how they evolve and how we harness them.
Before we rework our organizations, we must acknowledge how their current forms emerged. Destructive and inadequate thinking leads to destructive organizations. Instead of relying on blueprints and best practices, we must recognize that each organization is unique and needs to be treated accordingly. This is the starting point for a new approach to creating, leading, and transforming organizations.
This is part of a series on organization and transformation:
