A comprehensive exploration of an operating next-generation organization. Core founding assumptions Vision & Values Culture is key .. wirearchy as opposed to hierarchy Practical operational aspects

1. Slide 1
The Future of Work
Robert Pye
1 December 2014
www.ethosvo.org

2. Slide 2
Experiment – have you seen this before?

3. Slide 3
Could one perceive many such models?

4. Slide 4
Escher’s art often portrays infinite loops

5. Slide 5
Agenda
• The map is not the territory1: Many ways to view the World
• The medium is the message2: What Media? What messages?
• Drinking ones own champagne3 : Experimenting on ourselves
1 - The expression "the map is not the territory" first appeared in print in a paper that Alfred Korzybski gave at a meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1931:[1] In Science and Sanity, Korzybski acknowledges his debt
to mathematician Eric Temple Bell, whose epigram "the map is not the thing mapped" was published in Numerology
2 -Marshall McLuhan - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964
3 - CEO of Pegasystems in relation to testing their own BPM software on themselves

6. Slide 6
Situating this talk..

7. Slide 7
1. The map is not the territory:
What maps / models? What territory?

8. Slide 8
Thoughts, Context, Questions
• There are lots of models (including Ethos’) Right tools for the right job
• New ways (models) to approach complex multi-stakeholder problems?
• Understanding and challenging the innate biases of industrial society
• Understanding and challenging the innate biases of media (& money & brands)
• Understand biases at all levels: Social, economic, environmental, nation state,
government , business, civil society, individual and community.
• How are we really improving lives? This must keep us honest.
If we don’t do these things, we could well end up
“solving the wrong problem very well” (is Uber?).
So perhaps the best adage is “seek first to understand then to be understood”

9. Slide 9
The new world
The Networked Society:
Our operating system is
the Internet/Web
The innate Internet/Web culture (I would suggest is):
open, integrative, data-rich, distributed, networked,
P2P, collaborative, knowledge based, tacit, power
laws, new forms of org.
By understanding these innate biases and capabilities
we can build new models that are neither good nor
bad (whatever that means). There are issues:
• Externalities (Uber, Bitcoin, Etherium)
• Old world biases (IPO, IP based value, proprietary)
• Legitimacy (trans national advocacy. Avaaz)
• Responsibility (who goes to jail when a reckless
algorithm mows down 20 pedestrians: driverless
cars)
• Defence-against-the-dark-arts. How to protect
against extractive biases and the tragedy of the
commons?
• Sociology / Identity and myriad other human issues

10. Slide 10
Global Solutions Networks
http://gsnetworks.org/ten-types-of-global-solution-network/
Will emerging structures offer hope for solving the most
complex multi-stakeholder problems? (like climate change,
poverty, food, education)

11. Slide 11
Industrial Maps
Closed: siloed, functional,
protected property, efficiency
based, competitive,
individualistic, broadcast,
explicit skills and experience.
Largely hierarchically
implemented, extractive and
organisationally as well as
individually self-interested.
Resistant to change. Set up to
protect, expand and enhance
power and assets.
Are there intermediate models
that can bridge the gap
between the old and the new?
The Industrial Society:
Running on Nation States
and Organisations as
operating systems

12. Slide 12
2. The medium is the message:
What media? What messages?

13. Slide 13
What biases do these media promote?
Money: http://www.moneyasdebt.net
A Nation State
A Brand
The Media
Work
Watch-out! These gotchas can set you on a path
you may not have intended

14. Slide 14
Brief Summary of biases at systemic level.
Present at all levels (including work)
• Individualism
• Efficiency
• Hierarchy
• Self-interest
• intermediation between people and produced goods and services
• Increasing intermediation between power, money and labour
• Reductionist
• Process oriented / linear / Time based
• Vertically integrated and global

15. Slide 15
The race to the bottom: What happens when free-market
economics works very well on stuff?

16. Slide 16
What happens to work when free-market
economics works very?

17. Slide 17
Important conclusions…
• Many frames we use today and their embedded
biases can produce poor outcomes when applied to
complex muli-stakeholder problems.
• For certain types of problems (common to a
networked society in fact) new frames, media, tools
and cultures must be piloted and developed.
• This need becomes urgent the closer we get to
Rifkin’s vision of a “(near) zero marginal cost society”

18. Slide 18
New Frame 1 (Rifkin): The Collaborative
Commons. A possible new societal narrative?

19. Frame 2 The Cynefin Framework (Dave Snowden)
Slide 19

20. New frame 3: A new problem solving philosophy
Networked Approach
Networked
Organisation
Problem*
People
=
A radically different philosophy (is actually as easy as 1, 2, 3)
1. Define the problem well (how will solving improve lives?)
2. Assemble a people around a common culture who are
passionate about solving the problem* Go back to 1,
Iterate, experiment
3. Build a sustainable ecosystem (covering, financial,
social & environmental). For the people first. Include
existing orgs and create new types of orgs to serve the
solution.
Slide 20
*Problem. Forget about ‘organisations’ for a while. Problem = opportunity,
Idea, value proposition. Must have a unifying purpose. We strive to deliver
positive social, economic and environmental impact from our work
Industrial Approach
• Products
• Services
• Self interest
• Shareholder Value
Self-interests dominate
1. Approach is top-down, command and control.
Hierarchical. Silos.
2. What product/servicer are we selling to whom.
3. Which segments?
4. Broadcast
5. Shareholder value
6. Race to the bottom (zero-marginal cost economy)
7. etc.

21. Slide 21
New Frame 4: The Shift (wirearchy)
Traditional Hierarchy
• Discrete events
• Time to adjust & absorb
• Relatively predictable outcomes
• Sense of the future as a continuation of
the present (orderly)
 Size
 Stability
 Functional specialization
 Position & role clarity
 Status
 Prescribed authority
 Globally vertically integrated
Wirearchy (Jon husband)
• Continuous process
• Adjust “on the fly”
• Almost impossible to predict
outcomes
• The future as highly complex and
uncertain (chaotic)
 Speed
 Flexibility
 Innovation
 Integration
 Expertise & knowledge
 Intuitive authority
 Locally, horizontally integrated
“In the past, change was a periodic event in organizations
… now, organization is a periodic event.”

22. Slide 22
3. Drinking our own champagne:
Some experiments

23. Slide 23
Team Army
• Problem: British Army Sport (best described as “welfare through sport”)
• 100,000 soldiers in need of more funds for their sports (addl to gov money)
• Co-venture between Ethos and the Army board (no gov money, license, prior IP or competition)
• £2.6m of new cash delivered to 80 Forces sports (most donated from Ethos business)
• New brand identity (Team Army) created and owned by Ethos
• A symbiotic “ecosystem” involving the support of about 100 organisations to create a sustainable
solution.

24. New Frame 5a: A Commercial ecosystem (symbiotic)
The flows of cash.
Slide 24

25. Slide 25
New Frame 5b: Distributed Governance.

26. Slide 26
New Frame 6: Local Authority Public / Private Partnership
• Problem: Integrated innovation and delivery at a city level.
• Scope: very ambitions
• Realities: no new money! Cost saving agenda
• Solution. Conceive three new core capabilities:
• Innovate (Value proposition Dev)
• Operate (marketing & PR services)
• Align (spontaneously around opps)
• Wholly owned public / priv partnership
• Lessons:
• It’s all about people
• Seeing the wood from the trees
Destination
Management
Sector
Support
City Centre
Management
Cultural
Commissioning
Inward Investment

27. New Frame 7: LOD as an enabler to these models
Slide 27
• Linked Open data
• Philosophically aligned
• Not without issues (commercial, IP, people)
• Personal data – hot issues on IP and governance

28. Slide 28
Publish real-time asset availability via LOD

29. Slide 29
Re-imaging the high-street personal offers via
anon pers data)

30. Slide 30
An Avatar (with AI) to capture personal data

31. Slide 31
New Fame 8a: Ethos’ approach to work. Leadership by
culture not command
• Collaboration
• Alignment of interests (each other and with clients)
• Mutual support
• Trust
• Adult-Adult culture (not parent-child as in hierarchy)
• Working towards outcomes, not being told ‘how’ to work
• Moderation
• Responsibility to work ‘with the grain of society’
• Aspiring to be the reverse of the ‘greedy banker’
• Projects aim to do “well” for individuals and their communities as well as “good”
for Ethos

32. New Fame 8b: Beware individualism and self-interest!
At Ethos, we share a vision about the future of work which is better for individuals,
better for organisations and better for the World we live in.
Slide 32
Organisations need to serve real people and their communities inside and outside
of their organisations. They need to solve problems. If they get in the way of either
then it’s time for a radical re-think.
Rewarding people for collective, collaborative over individual, competitive
behaviour.
Building a shared asset with Short, Medium and Long-term value and rewards.
Working back from this outcome

33. Slide 33
New Fame 8c: Ethos’ approach to work
Firstly, a value exchange document (VED) is agreed. Depending on the interest/needs of
Ethos and the individual. This does what is says on the tin – describes how value is
exchanged in both directions and it can change as often as either side wants.
Each partner gets
• Shares in Ethos (Long-term high risk) – accumulated according to
value added. No value until 1 Dec 2018 but then a potentially big
upside. Eliminates the divide between owners/workers
• Cash (short-term) – Monthly and via bi-annual dividends. Most cash
distributed according to Ethos success rather than individual or
project success
• “Ethos Partner Account*” (Ethos coins – mid-term) Private
commitment (off balance sheet) by the partners to pay you cash via
EthosVO Ltd. Allows future value to be recognised or non monetary
value recognised. Breaks the input based wage-slavery proposition.
* Partner Accounts represent the value you have accrued but have not yet been paid

34. Slide 34
New Fame 8d: Value Exchange Agreement

35. Slide 35
Further reading
• Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown, 2012. Print
• Aronson, Elliot. The Social Animal. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1972. Print.
• Berkun, Scott. The Year without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work. Print.
• Botsman, Rachel, and Roo Rogers. What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. New York: Harper Business, 2010. Print
• Christensen, Clayton M., and James Allworth. How Will You Measure Your Life? New York, NY: Harper Business :, 2012. Print.
• Collins, James C. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap--and Others Don't. New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001. Print.
• Covey, Stephen R. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. Print.
• Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. Print.
• Godin, Seth. The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2012. Print.
• Gratton, Lynda. The Key: How Corporations Succeed by Solving the World's Toughest Problems. Print.
• Gratton, Lynda. The Shift: How the Future of Work Is Already Here. London: Collins, 2011. Print.
• Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print.
• Kauffman, Stuart A. At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-organization and Complexity. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. Print.
• Keay, John. The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company. New York: Macmillan Co ;, 1994. Print.
• Kelly, Kevin. What Technology Wants. New York: Viking, 2010. Print.
• Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.
• Levitt, Steven D., and Stephen J. Dubner. Think like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2014. Print.
• Nowak, M. A., and Roger Highfield. Super Cooperators: Evolution, Altruism and Human Behaviour or Why We Need Each Other to Succeed. Edinburgh:
Canongate, 2011. Print.
• Osterwalder, Alexander, and Yves Pigneur. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010.
• Owen, David. In Sickness and in Power: Illness in Heads of Government during the Last 100 Years. English Language ed. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2008. Print.
• Piketty, Thomas, and Arthur Goldhammer. Capital in the Twenty-first Century. Print.
• Rifkin, Jeremy. The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism. Print.
• Rushkoff, Douglas. Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. Print.
• Rushkoff, Douglas. Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back. New York: Random House, 2009. Print.
• Schmidt, Eric, and Jared Cohen. The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business. Print.
• Senor, Dan, and Saul Singer. Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. New York: Twelve, 2009. Print.
• Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.
• Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World. New York, N.Y.: Portfolio Penguin, 2010. Print.
• Toffler, Alvin. Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century. New York: Bantam, 1990. Print.
• Tter, Frank. Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962. New York: Walker, 2010. Print.
• Vaidhyanathan, Siva. The Googlization of Everything: (and Why We Should Worry). Berkeley: U of California, 2011. Print.
• Vogt, A. E. The World of Null-A,. London: Dobson, 1969. Print.
• Wenger, Etienne. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 1998. Print.
• Wolin, Sheldon S. Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2008. Print.

36. Slide 36
The Future of Work
Robert Pye
robert.pye@ethosvo.org
www.ethosvo.org
Ethos VO Website ethosvo.org
Ethos Community epp.ethosvo.org
Ethos Smart ethossmart.com
Team Army teamarmy.org