Never has there been so much complexity and uncertainty in our world. Running institutions is proving increasingly difficult due to the complexity they are operating under. Or so it is said - but is this really the case? Isn’t it just that the methods we are using were never designed for complexity? Isn’t it that leadership in complexity requires a different set of tools, a different mindset, different ways of working? This article introduces some of the thinkers and researchers who have explored VUCA and complexity in a human organising context in more depth, with a view of understanding what organisational development and transformation practitioners can apply to meet complextity and VUCA more effectively.

This blog calls for more trained Open Space Tech facilitators to work within organisations to help staff and management alike take a more holistic value stream view of their organisations. This would not only enable far more cross-departmental communication and exchange to create better coherence of the organisation, but would massively boost engagement and innovation in the organisation. Moreover having an ongoing Open Space mindset would enable traditional companies to transition to new ways of working and organising.

Stories from the leading edge of highly functional and enjoyable workplaces - and making the transition effectively. Caterfly is launching a free e-hub, pulling together helpful and insightful articles and practical support for anyone engaged in change in organisations, or wanting to transform the way their company works together. Click below to subscribe.

Nowadays discussions about hierarchy abound, especially in organisations, some arguing you need hierarchy to run an organization, otherwise you have chaos, while others deploring the negative effects of hierarchy, such as stifling innovation, or treating humans as mechanical cogs. These debates have come to the fore with the advent of self-organising structures, self-managing organisations and more recently the hubbub around companies without bosses, networks without hierarchies, and so on.

We live in a world where a mechanistic, “machine” view of organizations has served for some time. The end of this era is upon us, and the transition to a living-systems view is well underway. Organizations are more like living things than they are like machines. Without getting into all the details of “why,” this essay assumes the living-systems view is the more accurate view, the more useful view. The view that is actually closer to reality. In the living-systems view, change is not “managed"....

This blog explores the rationale for having a practical guide on implementing agile at scale in organisations using a unique approach of inviting people in to co-create change together and iteratively.

Most organisational transformations are imposed from the top, often involving a team of 'change management' experts to implement. Yet evidence seems to indicate this is not always effective. Here an alternative view is presented.

As a coach I have always steered away from 'change management', which always struck me as unfair or oppressive, even when it was well-intentioned and perfectly rational. It has appeared to me one-sided, with senior management wanting to enforce a new system or a new way of working, yet were often unwilling to change their own habits or behaviours. It is not a genuinely collaborative effort, and change has often seemed to me to be imposed...

Exploring the relationship between Self-organising Learning Environments (SOLE), setting the conditions for peer learning to emerge, and Open Space Technology, setting the conditions for peer conversations to blossom, both by inviting those affected into the process of co-deciding and co-creating.

Open Space Technology, commonly Open Space, is a social technology, a tool for helping people to rally around a shared challenge, with minimum obstacles and maximum efficiency. It is used to organise meetings, gatherings, conferences, problem solving and summits in which everyone has the opportunity to participate on their own terms.

As any parent knows, as soon as a child starts to develop a sense of identity, they start to assert their boundaries and free will by saying No. Human nature being what it is, we have an innate hardwired resistance to change and to being told what to do. In the workplace getting others to do what is wanted of them, and getting them to engage, care and want it, is known as 'achieving buy-in.' It is the classic and everyday challenge faced by leadership...