My talk from the Creative Summit 2015. #cresum15 Work sucks. Despite exponential innovation in technology, the way in which we work and organize haven't fundamentally changed in 50 years. What lessons can we learn from naturally occurring complex adaptive systems (cities, ant colonies, your immune system)? What practices should we take from the most responsive companies of today?

1. The Responsive Organization
@vladimirpick / undercurrent / quirky / responsive.org

2. Hi, I’m Vlad
Belive that good
work is getting
harder to do
Believe that it’s
too hard to bring
products to market

5. 5
This is an incredible time to be alive.
>>>

6. 3D PRINTER
INDUSTRIAL
ROBOTS
$500,000 ➤ $22,000
23x in 5 yrs
DRONES
$100,000 ➤ $700
142x in 6 yrs
SOLAR
$30/KWH ➤ $0.16/KWH
200x in 30 yrs
SENSORS
$20,000 ➤ $79
250x in 5 yrs
NEUROTECH
$4,000 ➤ $90
44x in 5 yrs
DNA SEQUENCING
10,000x in 7 yrs
$10MM ➤ $1,000
SOURCE: “EXPONENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS”, YURI VAN GEEST, HTTP://WWW.SLIDESHARE.NET/VANGEEST/EXPONENTIAL-ORGANIZATIONS-H
EXPONENTIAL
INNOVATION ➤
$40,000 ➤ $100
400x in 7 yrs

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8
5
4
2 2
22m 14m
TYPICAL
FORTUNE 500
COMPANY
GOOGLE FACEBOOK TESLA UBER WHATSAPP SNAPCHAT OCULUS
RIFT
YEARS TO REACH $1B MARKET CAP
SOURCE: “EXPONENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS”, YURI VAN GEEST, HTTP://WWW.SLIDESHARE.NET/VANGEEST/EXPONENTIAL-ORGANIZATIONS-H

8. Better
Access
Better
Platforms
Better
Networks

9. 9
At the same time, the world is more complex
and more uncertain than ever before.
>>>

10. More
Players
More
Innovation
More
Information

11. 11
Amidst all that change, you know what has
been remarkably unremarkable?
The way we design and run organizations. You know, the places where we spend
over half our lives.

13. 13
Most companies don't get better every day.
Some get bigger, and some get smaller, but precious few deliver better
performance, better people, and better culture over the long arc of time.

14. 14
But the world certainly seems to be.
Based on the work of Geoffrey West and Luis Bettencourt, when a city doubles in
size, its inhabitants become 15% more innovative and productive.

15. 15
Bigger cities and organizations = more
connections, more choices, more
complexity.
The question is how do these systems manage that complexity?

16. 16
Some, in an effort to predict and control the
uncertainty, adopt structures and processes
designed for a hierarchical world.
In their view, the people at the top are kings and the people at the bottom are peasants. This
approach slows them down, disengages talent, and limits their vision for the future.

17. 17
Others, as a reaction to the old way, adopt
a chaotic approach, where anyone can do
anything, and process is a bad word.
This approach goes great for awhile, but as things scale, work becomes misaligned, balls are
dropped, and the culture often defers back to its implicit hierarchy.

19. THE TOP 20 MOST RESPONSIVE COMPANIES

20. Profit Purpose

21. Silos Networks

22. Planning Emergence

23. Efficiency Adaptivity

24. Controlling Empowering

25. Privacy Transparency

26. 26
Instead of hierarchy or chaos, we’ve designed
a third way - a way to operate that balances
control and chaos. Let’s call this the Quirky
Way.
This “operating system” should give us a view of our current state (how work is done today), as
well as a mechanism for progress and change at every level of the organization. This responsive
approach requires a combination of principles and practices from Holacracy, Agile, Lean, Quirky
itself, and other self-organizing companies.

27. 27
Roles and people are not
1:1. We wear many hats and
our hats change.
These PRINCIPLES help us balance autonomy, speed, and risk
Consent is faster than
consensus. Make decisions
“safe to try” and move forward.
Discussing the work ≠
doing the work. Go try
something and come back.
Nothing is set in stone. The
rules, the roles, the structure…
they wait for your improvement.
Control is a fantasy. Embrace
uncertainty (and beat it) with
clear goals and iteration.
Trust each other. Give your
colleagues the benefit of the
doubt (or get new colleagues).

28. 28
1x Week
Action Meeting
“What do you need?”
1x Month 1x Quarter
These PRACTICES help us keep moving and evolving
30 minutes 90 minutes 3 hours
Governance Meeting
“What should change?”
Strategy Meeting
“What should we prioritize?”

29. Vladimir Pick
@vladimirpick
+1 917 596 8068
vladimir.pick@quirkyinc.com

30. PURPOSE Are we in pursuit of something meaningful?
NETWORKS
Are we leveraging, growing, and serving networks
of people and technology?
EMERGENCE
Are we planning too much and not testing-and-
learning enough?
ADAPTIVITY
Are we over-engineering things? For efficiency, for
control, or to preserve the status quo?
EMPOWERING
Are we pushing authority to the edge of the
organization? Is it clear who has it?
TRANSPARENCY
Are we letting information flow? Is it improving our
decisions? Are we tightly knit?
RESPONSIVEFRAMEWORK

32. # ESTIMATE ACTUAL BUGS
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