The traditional organisation is struggling to innovate and attract talent. Claro explores decentralised organisations to understand the future of work

1. Autonomy in Alignment for decentralised organisations
Claro Partners | Navigating Disruptive Shifts
Intersection Conference, Barcelona, September 2017

2. Autonomy in alignment
Why do we need a new way of working?
What does the structure look like?
Who is the new “employee”?
What is the new employee experience?
How can we transition and adapt?
Q&A
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3. We take an ethnographic approach to business and design challenges
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4. Why do we need new ways of working?1
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5. !
The traditional organisation is
struggling to innovate
and attract talent.
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6. New attitudes
towards jobs and
lifestyle
New expectations
towards customisation
of products
New capabilities to
get things done
independently
New balance of
economies of scale vs.
economies of small
We need new
organisational design
for a new dynamic reality
Today’s shifts mean the traditional organisation struggles to
cater to employees or customers.
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7. The new organisational model is a value exchange network
Who is the new
“employee”?
What does the
structure
look like?
What is their
experience
from recruit to alumni?
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8. The new organisational model is diametrically opposite to the traditional model
Command & control chain
Centralised value creation
Detachment of “solution” from “need”
Efficient labour use
Main challenge: funding / resource allocation
Limits to scale & speed & localness
Inflexible, hierarchical, planned
TRADITIONAL
High on the company side:
(Participants don’t contribute)
High level of accountability
Adaptive, decentralised and flexible
Orchestration & distributed decision making
Peripheral value co-creation
Collocation of “need” and “solution”
Redundancy & flexibility of roles
(àresilience)
Main challenge: motivating /resource attraction
Traditionally unaffordable projects
become affordable
NETWORKED
Low on the company side:
(Distributed to participants)
Low level of accountability
CONTROL
VALUE CREATION
WORKFORCE
RESOURCES
FINANCING
STRUCTURE
ACCOUNTABILITY
ASSET ALLOCATION
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9. Machine Family Organism
This points us to a new metaphor for the organisation
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Machines are all about
consistency and standardisation
Then more progressive
organisations talked about
families. But families can be
dysfunctional
We see the future organisation as
an organism. Flexible, adaptive,
self regulating

10. Value creation networks will only function with “autonomy in alignment”
Control
FreedomControl Autonomy in alignment
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11. Autonomy in alignment should be present in people, structure, experience
Who is the new
“employee”?
What does the
structure
look like?
What is their
experience
from recruit to alumni?
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12. What does the structure look like?2
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13. Structures for value creation networks
NETWORK
HUB & SPOKES
SEPARATE CELLS
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Individuals Teams

14. Separate cells| every person is a virtual company and delivers end-
to-end products to their own customers
Matt Black Systems
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15. Hub & Spokes| cells share a fundamental set of capabilities that
enable them to deliver a product or service
Handelsbanken
LeedsChippenham
Poole
Ipswich
London
Yeovil
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16. Network| every team owns one piece of the service
Spotify
Ads
Track
listing
Artist
pages
Playlists
Discovery
Browsing
experience
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17. Who is the new “employee”?3
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18. !
People are the most
important element of a
value creation network.
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19. “I am responsible for taking action, asking questions, getting
answers, and making decisions. I won’t wait for someone to tell me.
If I need to know, I’m responsible for asking.”
Learning-maniac pledge, WD40
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20. Value creator characteristics
Find solutions
• Curious
• Resourceful
• Collaborative
Are adaptive
• Has or can acquire
multiple skills
• Holistic thinker
• Responsible risk taker
Thrive in a culture
based on norms,
not standards
• Self-motivated
• Self-disciplined
• Has empathy
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21. What is the new “employee” experience?4
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22. !Autonomy in alignment is
an every day experience.
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23. Autonomy in alignment at every step
Attract Engage Extend
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24. Autonomy in alignment needs to happen at every step
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25. How to transition and adapt?5
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26. The key to success is a set of unique and genuine core values that are lived every day
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27. Transformation has to be done bottom-up and top-down
One big
roll out
Small and incremental
experiments
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28. Networks are better suited to attracting employees and
delivering to customers
For them to function, we need autonomy in alignment.
This depends on reinventing the hiring profile, structure
and day to day experience.
We can transition through roll-outs
or experimentation
Summary
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29. Thank!
Claro Partners
www.claropartners.com
Aldo de Jong
aldo.dejong@claropartners.com
Request our point of view
paper at
pov@claropartners.com