- The World We Live in Today
- Tomorrow's World: Human Organizations
- How This Book Is Structured
- What's Different About This Book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
What's Different About This Book
Although we are both consultants, we tried hard to keep our framework from becoming a consultanty "model." It has no clever acronyms associated with it. (We actually really hate acronyms. There, we said it.) It's a simple, straightforward, common sense framework, broken down into manageable parts that you can use to help grow and nurture your organization within its particular ecosystem. The book is meant to simplify the many thoughts and conversations that may be swirling around your organization about becoming more human. It is a guide, and the resources and worksheets we've included will help.
Something else important to note—this book doesn't have a lot of stories. We include examples where relevant, of course, but we're a little tired of all those books that go on and on to illustrate their points. Storytelling is important, in general, to help readers identify with the theories raised in business books, but in this case, you know the story better than we do. You know the story because you're living it in your organization or business. We all are. And if that's not enough, there is also a whole Internet full of relevant stories. We're not here to Google that for you; we're here to help you just get cracking. Because the way we structured this book, looking at the four essential human elements of the social organization from a cultural, structural, and individual level, boils down to one simple fact: The buck stops with you.
There's no point in reading this if you don't want to get started making changes. If you're happy to stay plugged into the Matrix, that's totally fine; we won't waste more of your time. Organizations and businesses have mechanisms in place to stop progress, to stop themselves from evolving. Mainly because of an inherent fear of change and fear of losing control, they have an interest in maintaining the status quo. We feel strongly that such an approach is becoming increasingly less viable. Mark our words: If you think your organization is behind now, just spend a year or two treading water, and you'll see how much ground there is to make up. There's no time to waste. It's up to you, if you care about your organization, to help it not only survive this transition but to also flourish.
And you're not alone. We can all help each other—on the social web, everyone's watching. Follow the white rabbit. Let's go.