MORE FLEXIBLE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE THIRD SECTOR. FOR WHAT PURPOSE AND WHO SHOULD PROMOTE IT?

 


Original article published in catalan on 05/07/23

What is the purpose of promoting more alive, open, flexible, participatory, community-oriented organizations that learn? Who or which people should drive this transformation within an organization or institution?

When we talk about new organizational models, we not only focus on what these models are: the architecture and dynamics that organizations should adopt, but we also focus on the "why" behind these new models. It is in the "why" where lies what "will move the world."

From my perspective, this "why" has a structural, systemic part, and a specific part related to each entity or organization.

The structural, systemic part is associated with the current environment of complexity, acceleration, and uncertainty—characteristics of the world we live in. We also know that these characteristics imply that people will need to develop learnability, or the ability to learn throughout their lives. Thus, from this more structural perspective, we need organizations that adapt to these characteristics in a resilient way. Organizations with structures that respond to complexity in an agile and flexible manner, becoming more efficient, but above all, more effective. Organizations that create ecosystems that foster continuous learning, becoming organizations that learn on their own. For all these reasons, we need to rethink and build organizational models that facilitate this.

The more internal part is linked to the organization’s mission. The reason for the existence of a particular organization. Bearing in mind the "why," the organization must move forward in rethinking how it can organize itself and promote new relational dynamics that better respond to its raison d'être.
On the other hand, another key aspect is who will be the people who will make these transformations possible in organizations?

Here, I would distinguish two profiles of people, and for each of them, there may be one or more individuals:
The first profile is the person or people who hold power within the organization. Any transformation of this nature will stem from an act of generosity, from sharing power across the entire organization. Therefore, to initiate change, a sincere and firm willingness to share power is essential from the person or people who have held it until that point.

The second profile is the person or people who will need to promote and weave together different ways of organizing, relating, recognizing, and valuing the workforce, while facilitating, guiding, and accompanying the organization towards a different way of working—a more collaborative approach with a broader and more inclusive perspective.

This accompaniment should focus partly on the "how": on the way people relate within the organization, as I have explained in other articles I’ve written, but mainly it should focus on the "what": what do we want to do differently in line with the organization’s mission? What specific aspect or aspects do we want to transform? What are the common objectives of the organization? Accompany by prioritizing the intermediate objectives, those that belong to no one in particular, those that will push us to be more collaborative, as Manel Muntada points out. Those that do not directly belong to anyone and at the same time belong to everyone—they are for the common good.

Thus, this second profile of people must focus on the common good of the organization, on the gray areas, on the intangible elements that make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Weaving connections, bonds, and links between different people, disciplines, and parts of the organization to bring forth "things" that do not yet exist. At the same time, weaving from the organization outward, towards the ecosystem of which the entity is a part. And all of this with the focus on the organization’s mission always in mind.

As Donella Meadows says, “interdisciplinary communication only works when there is a real problem to solve and the representatives of the different disciplines are more focused on solving the problem than on academic correctness, recognizing their ignorance, and accepting what their colleagues and the system can teach them. And when it happens, it is very exciting.”
To do this, it will be necessary to stop doing: stop doing things the old way; stop pretending that only a few people can promote this qualitative leap; stop thinking that individually we can find the answers we need... leave individualism behind to advance in collectivity.


Meadows, Donella H. (2022). Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Capitán Swing.


Muntada, Manel (2023). “Are We Really as Collaborative as We Say We Are?” http://blog.cumclavis.net/2023/04/somos-las-personas-tan-colaborativas.html


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