Organisations have come a long way over the millennia, and yet they have always had one constant (until this century): people carrying out analysis to develop strategy and tactics, and to carry out all day-to-day work. Over time, tools gradually became an integral part of organisations aimed at making work easier for people.

Initially, tools were focused on making manual work easier – tools wielded by people, tools wielded by animals, wind, steam, and later electricity. At the next level, tools supported mental functions like keeping records and carrying out calculations, some of them increasingly complex, enabled by the emergence and rapid acceleration of electronic computers. We have now moved to the stage where, through electronic sensors and artificial (electronic) neural networks, tools have moved to the stage where they have the capability to acquire data, analyse it, take decisions, and take direct action: technology is moving tools higher and higher into what were traditionally the realms of human mental action and decision. The fact that tools can autonomously communicate with each other through the internet of things means that there is an electronic layer able to take acquire data, analyse it, take decisions, and execute them without the involvement of human beings – and all at scale.

What does this mean to organisations? The combination of global megatrends and the technology revolution have placed a lot of stress on all sizes and types of organisations – governmental, non-governmental, commercial, and civil; so much so that for many, the threat is existential. It is a survival imperative for organisations to be agile, resilient, and innovative. The challenge is that despite repeated and often costly attempts to change, most organisations still retain their legacy outlook and culture even when structures appear to be streamlined on paper with high-end
technologies introduced.

The search for transformation is unfortunately often addressed in two human layers: the organizational layer (policies and procedures, governance, management, people and culture) on the one hand, and the technology layer on the other hand. Both layers fail to communicate because each speaks a different language – and yet technology in organisations provides the all-important computational and analytical capabilities that ensure exploitation of data. Technology is also the nervous system of any modern organisation through which all the communication flows, some carrying information from sensors, some transmitting action decisions including actuation, and some reporting on actions taken, and it is at the same time the first line of defence in ensuring cybersecurity.

The organisational business processes (defining the organisational structure) and are supposed to exploit technology, and yet the two are often designed independently. The way technology is used is supposed to be fully responsive to organizational priorities and objectives, and yet decisions about what, how, and when are often entrusted to technology people who are often kept out of contributing
or understanding key policy decisions and business processes. The resultant disconnects throughout the organisation lead to increasing investment without organizational benefit, and therefore increasing frustration, both compounded by the lack of a common language that brings these two crucial layers together.

To transform and stay in step with rapid change – or better still to stay a step ahead of such change – the New Organisation has to become a living organism where there is a shared consciousness, where the two layers and all parts act in harmony and, where needed, take local action for of the whole (like a hand that accidentally touches a hot object and pulls back immediately).