Welcome to The Beyond Hierarchy Project
The next 30 years is our chance to see whether having a bigger brain 🧠 really is an evolutionary advantage, or not 🤪.
As someone who has dedicated over three decades to exploring new ways of working that are a better fit for today’s volatile and uncertain world, I’ll never forget the time in the late ‘90s when I saw so many groups/teams/communities falling apart. Brilliant people, trying to do great work. But something about the way they were working wasn’t working. I felt in my bones that there had to be better ways to do it - that bring out the best in all of us. It forged inside me a commitment to discover and then share them. This became my life’s work.
The Need for Collective Intelligence
Humans have certainly evolved to be smarter as individuals. But in this VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world we face, with wicked problems at every turn, individual brilliance just isn’t enough. We need collective responses and collective intelligence, where teams, organisations, and communities can come up with solutions far beyond what any one person could devise.
The Limits of Hierarchy
The problem is that this collective genius doesn’t happen automatically. It requires very specific conditions to emerge. And the default way most of us are used to organising - the dominator hierarchies of traditional management - are the antithesis of what’s needed.
Top-down hierarchy simply isn’t fit for purpose in today’s world. It can’t create the conditions for the collective intelligence we so desperately need. So if things aren’t working great in your team or organisation, it’s not necessarily that you’re doing anything wrong. Your “operating system” is just out of date and needs an upgrade.
Alternatives to the Dominator Hierarchy
The good news is that there are alternatives to these hierarchies that actually work. New ways of organising and decision-making that foster the conditions for collective intelligence to thrive. Methods include Holacracy, Sociocracy, S3, the Collaborative Operating System, the Viable Systems Model, Teal Organising, and Biomimicry which models the natural hierarchies found in ecosystems, as well as a plethora of homegrown methods for running self-managing teams, among others…
The bad news? Most of us have never been trained in how to make the best use of these new approaches or understand which ones would work for our own situations. There’s a great deal of need and interest, but also considerable confusion. Which one is right for your situation? How do they really work in practice?
Are you equipped to go beyond hierarchy?
Do you think that you have the right mindset and tools?
The Beyond Hierarchy Project
This is where the Beyond Hierarchy Project comes in. We’re starting with a collective of ten experts, researchers, and practitioners who are committed to curating and sharing the best of these new ways of working. Our goal is to provide quick and easy ways for you to test them out and see what might be a good fit for your team or organisation.
You’re not just a reader of this project - you’re a co-creator with us. Together, we’ll dive into the cutting edge of organisational evolution and write the next chapter in the story of work. The time is now to reclaim our humanity in an increasingly automated, disconnected and polarised world. Will you join us?
We don’t know how this project will go. We are starting with a small pilot and then iterating based on your feedback and engagement. I hope it turns into a global research project and then a crowd-sourced book of best practices. But it will have a life of its own. Start by telling us about the challenges you’re facing and how you’re interested in exploring new ways of working beyond hierarchy. And we’ll take it from there.
Imagine a world where your team effortlessly navigates uncertainty, tapping the diverse talents of every member. Where silos dissolve, creativity flourishes, and solutions emerge organically. This is the future we’re building— and you have a vital role to play.
It’s an ambitious project, and will take multiple generations, beyond our lifetimes. I’ll send more in the coming days about the what/why/how/when/where/who of The Beyond Hierarchy Project and how you can play your part.
Nick Osborne from Evolving Organisation,
on behalf of The Beyond Hierarchy Collective.
