Emergent versus detergent structures

A few more thoughts following on from Clips on Slime which was well received.

When Mike and I are asking questions about a firm, we try to establish what kind of organism they are looking to build. Many firms are pulled in two directions: on the one hand, there is recognition that new ideas are the vital (meaning ‘life giving’) currency of the future. On the other hand, this is counter-balanced by the desire for predictability of results, usually leading to standardisation of processes. These two forces are in opposition because the “ideas” force tends to be chaotic and emergent (ideas can come from anywhere and are risky in both failure and the potential change they represent), while the “standardisation” force looks to tune humans and systems to deliver repeatable results (we will aim to increase sales year on year by 8%).

Two organisational structures are suggested by these forces. The more common structure is ‘detergent’ in nature – it is cleansing. It aims for detailed definition of objectives and measurement of the individual, and rolls-up the sum of this work into a predictable output of the business as a machine. The oft-overlooked insight from physics is that measurement changes things: innovation is harder in a context of pervasive measurement.

Detergent:

The less common structure – and the more interesting, in our view – is ’emergent’. It is growthful and untidy in nature. Ideas are encouraged and are evaluated without prejudice as to their origin: instead, ideas compete for attention in a kind of organisational ecology (borrowing from Jim McCarthy’s EcologyofIdeas pattern). The best ideas, large and small, are harvested and made into things: products, ways of offering services, new communities, new ways of collaborating, new processes. This organisation is a kind of brewery. The behaviour of yeast is emergent.

It’s alive! Live yeast at work in a batch of dough:

Many organisations talk about the potential of the individual, or say that their most important assets are their people. But very few organisations are self-confident enough to allow an ongoing process of innovation to deliver a stream of new ideas to the business. To do this means to increase the amount of slack for teams, so that the emergent organisation can grow, and the detergent organisation becomes subservient. It’s growth over measurement. We think this is the right way round.

So on the one hand we have clean structures tending towards ossification as they preserve what is already passing away; and on the other we have emergent structures that bring risk and lots of transforming ideas.

Or put another way – it’s detergent or yeast. Which organisation are you?

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Flickr images courteousy of:
Detergent by XcBiker
Yeast by bjortklingd