Is Enterprise 2.0 the neuro-organisation?

This article belongs to Cécile Demailly’s blog here; a version in French is available here: Entreprise 2.0 et cerveau, quels parallèles ? .

Using metaphors enriches understanding and provides insights that are not only theoretical, but also incredibly practical. Gareth Morgan, in his book “Images of Organization”, mentions the Brain as one of them, among many others. It didn’t strike me as an interesting analogy until recently, when one of my neuro-psy teachers drew neurons connections on a chart. Dependant on the brain territory, you either get neuron highways, i.e. structured and persistent connections, or a fully meshed design where connections can be established on demand, in virtually an infinite number of ways.

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) connections schema caught my eyes: isn’t it similar to what one can draw when picturing the most recent form of an organization, whether you call that Enterprise 2.0, the Collaborative Organization or the Connected Corporation?

Are our brains more evolved than our enterprises?

According to the Triune Brain theory revisited[i], the very first brain development was the Reptilian territory, dedicated to survival: act when everything is calm, escape, fight or play dead when there is a death threat. Second layer was the paleo-limbic, when mammals started to live in herds: it manages relationships in the group. The third brain territory that developed was the neo-limbic cortex, where our character and temperament sit, and where among other things our values are formed and referred to – this territory is present today in a limited number of mammals brains. The PFC is the last evolution stage of the brain and only exists in human brains, and a few apes: it helps us face complexity and new situations. It also manages pure creativity, when one is able to think beyond what-he-thinks-he-knows – see double loop learning from Chris Argyris, for example. That is how it creates new routes of neurons on demand, and how many more connections are kept alive than in other territories.

A small joke among neuro-psy practitioners is that politics are at the paleo-limbic stage, our education system is at the neo-limbic one, and the enterprise is trying to overhaul that same neo-limbic stage. A vision of hope.

Are we making the most of our brains? Forget the old rumor saying we only use 10% of it – this was in the 80’s when we didn’t know what the 90 other per cent was doing. They work at 100% . However, the whole brain does not hold the reins all the time. Where the neo-limbic territory governs automatic responses and actions based on a data bank of known situations (or supposedly known) related to given behaviors, the PFC benefits from a virtually infinite database of very diverse tokens and recollections in which it can search, evaluate and compare. The thing is, most of the time the neo-limbic governs, while the PFC is backstage – even sometimes when it should conduct. It is just like if the PFC has yet to accomplish its full development.

Parallels with todays corporation? The neo-limbic looks like the corporate culture and the processes, whether they are explicit or implicit. The PFC looks like the collaborative and collective potential – when there’s a whole world of talents and knowledge to mine and the power of connections to leverage. The former runs our organizations, the latter may have hints for innovating and solving pervasive issues – though not fully sure how to use it, not sure where it will lead.

Decision-making constituents, action impetus Brain Enterprise
Who usually drives? Limbic territories: Relationship in the group, character/ temperament/ values, automatisms Corporate culture, processes, hierarchy, policies, norms & rules, etc.
Who can help adapt, progress, change? PFC: complex and new situations are its field, with fully meshed neurons networks and a versatile memory, able to process on-demand – no automatisms there, it is mainly adaptation, creativity and innovation (that are lost in case of lobotomy) Could it be the power of connected people, collaboration and collective intelligence?

Adapt or die – where the power of networking could fuel agility

One easily sees benefits of being able to put the PFC to work: adapt to any situation without chains or barriers, benefit from our total intelligence in any circumstance. Human beings who can do this are very few – as mentioned above, our brains have not yet reached this development level. One can train and improve though, this is some of what we learn to facilitate in neuro-psychology.

One paradox of using the PFC is that one has to let go the effectiveness and efficiency duty in order to become more effective and efficient. A clue is that serene people are in much better shape to address edgy situations. Easy to write, hard to grasp, harder to do!

Back to our comparison, a conjecture would be that the enterprise has to get ready to welcome what may come from collaboration initiatives, and get the most of it. That is, without planning ahead what the result should be, or how it should work. Just wait and see. And, it has to feed it with real and serious problems.

In both cases, brain and corporation, it does not mean the other layer (the neo-limbic / the corporate culture and processes) is off work; it just implies that both layers need to work together and rely on each other.

How can the enterprise get there? Probably one very important ingredient is a culture of change. Because whatever situation you address, there will always be a new and more complex one coming. The power of connected people needs to be tapped, but not tamed: new forms of collaboration, new forms of collective intelligence have to be fed with new issues.

The corporation does not age, but it can eventually die. It may become rigid, make errors in terms of adaptation, and then collapse – most corporations expire before they reach 40 years old[ii]. And in these times where everything accelerates, it is more than urgent to cultivate adaptability, even if it means welcoming uncertainty as a resource.


[i] Among other, by the Institut de NeuroCognitivisme in its neurocognitive and behavioral approach
[ii] a Royal Dutch/Shell survey of 1983, the Fifth Discipline, Peter M. Senge


The 4E's and Change - Part 2

1. An accepted need for change

There must be a “need” creation process – the Leader usually understands the reason and the need for the change first, but not always. Sometimes the need is there, well identified, yet no one knows how to deal with it. It is at this point that the Leader steps in. Importantly he or she must then help create the acceptance of the need for change amongst all members of the organization. And a principal early activity of the Leaders is to help start a trust building process around this need for change.

To do this, Leaders must embody the values of the Enterprise if the change is to be “authentic”.

2. A viable vision of an alternative state

Without a viable and vivid picture of where the organization is going, there can be no change. The Leader’s role is to help convince the key people in the organization of the viability of the new vision with a clear “end state” picture. This which will be:

  • practical – based on real technology, effective organization, available finance etc.
  • worth doing – for the key people in the organization
  • able to grow / develop – everyone can contribute to the change over time
  • able to survive the environmental context outside of the creator’s mind
  • consistent with the Enterprise’s values

A helpful tool is an OGSTM, which formally separates the objectives, goals, strategies, tactics, and measures. If used properly, it is a “living” document which gets everyone concerned “onto the same page” and “connects the dots” between strategy and action planning.

3. Change agents in place – with a guiding coalition

This is one of Kotter’s more telling points. There must be deliberate activity in place to simultaneously build a coalition of willing stakeholders and also create a network of trusted sponsors. It could be either an emergent coalition (that “pops up” when the need for change arises) or it could be a deliberately “designed” coalition. The Leader and the sponsors must have a good knowledge of their people and their roles. And they must ensure both top down and bottom up communication so that course corrections can be made.

The group of change agents must then own the change, and not just the initiator.

4. Sponsorship from above

This is, of course, necessary ….

5. Realistic scale and pace of change – but with a clear sense of urgency

A change Leader must understand the environmental context and as many hard facts as possible to help build realistic goals (and avoid unrealistic ones). Yet how the Leaders of any change process gauge realism is a rather “artistic” activity, requiring skill, good judgement, people sense and intuition. It can help to get some early wins on the way to the big goal, to maintain tempo, and to keep people on board.

Using “rolling forecasts” rather than goals set in concrete can help this. And sorting priorities by clear time sequencing of activities can help create realistic expectations and concrete action plans.

6. An integrated transition program

It is essential to nurture existing “business activities” whilst also building capacity for the new end state. Suggestions to help this include:

  • create interdependence between both states to help each other
  • balance the expectations for forecastable results with breakthrough activities
  • pace the transition from one state to the other
  • include all parts of the organization in building change capacity
  • set up feedback loops to course correct and adapt as things move forward
  • continually consider the psychological transition for people as the change occurs

7. Organization shape to show how tasks and people fit

It is often helpful to provide a “straw man” example of what the organization must look like to get the tasks completed to deliver the vision. The start point is to define the skills needed – and the consequent gaps in capability. It is important to not start planning with the current positions and employee names in the boxes – the key is to build from the future purpose of the Enterprise not from its history.

The Leader will then need to enrol the guiding coalition in the detailed organization design.

Eventually, the sponsors can define the specific roles and responsibilities within the new organization. But if you can’t make all the roles and reporting lines clear, say so. It is critical to provide clarity even if you can’t provide certainty

8. A symbolic end to the status quo

Having a clear and visible end to the “old” whilst also dealing with the mourning for this prior state can be very powerful. We need to be creative about such rituals, and try to build a symbolic (and possibly dramatic) start to the “new” state

9. A plan for likely resistance

Leaders of change must anticipate “pockets of resistance” and develop a specific plan for overcoming their objections. They need to deal with both the organizational and technological aspects as well as the human issues. If appropriate, change Leaders must consider “surgical removal” of obstacles.

10. Constant advocacy – maintain momentum of the change

This requires the full energy of the Leader and the Leadership team. In an effort to create meaning for everyone in the organization, an intensive process of both top down and bottom up flow of communication is necessary. The change Leader needs to bring the program alive for every individual in the organization – and then consistently and constantly communicate the right message –“tell them, tell them, and tell them again”.

11. A locally owned benefits plan

The benefits of the change must be expressed and measured in a concrete and tangible way for both individual employees and for the organization as a whole. This also implies that there is shared accountability within the organization for the results achieved, with the benefits linked to an effective and on-going performance management system.

Of course, a specific change program will tend to focus on a few of these points as being the most critical, but research suggests that all should be born in mind in planning the change.

“Leadership is the energetic process of getting other people fully and willingly committed to a new and sustainable course of action, to meet commonly agreed objectives whilst having commonly held values”

For more details on the 4E’s Leadership Framework, which was Mick’s MSc work on CCC, link here

Related resources, further study and references can be found at www.leader-values.com