The Secret to Organizational Innovation
We’ve been using an old playbook to lead organizations, and it’s costing us massively. We take for granted a lot of dysfunction in organizations- we assume long boring meetings are normal, most people don’t expect to enjoy work, it’s just a means to an end. We assume bureaucracy and jumping through hoops of process is all par for course.
We’ve just accepted all this as a necessary evil. How else can we get stuff done at the kind of scale we work with?
But the truth is, much of what we assume as normal at work comes from an old playbook that is optimizing for one thing: efficiency.
We treat organizations like one big machine, a factory with humans as just one part of the larger machine.
Back in the day, that worked just fine. We were solving predictable challenges. Machines were predictable, and we just needed people to check their humanness at the door and be part of an efficient system.
But when we’re solving complex challenges in an unpredictable world, efficiency can get in our way. We actually need to start optimizing for learning. In an unpredictable context, it’s not always possible to know the right answer ahead of time. So we have to experiment, try something and figure out the fastest way to learn and iterate.
This is how living systems work. There’s constant experimentation and evolution.
In order to prioritise innovation, in order to be resilient, in order to keep growing, we have to create organizations that are continually learning and evolving.
A true learning culture isn’t just one where people invest in their individual development. It’s one where learning and evolution is baked into the very fabric of the organization.
We don’t just have to accept boring meetings and insane bureaucracy. It’s possible to break out of this old playbook, and the first step is to create the psychological safety to learn and iterate continually, across the board.
Whether you’re a leader of a team or the chief executive, here are three small ways you can start enabling your organizational evolution:
Make it safe for people to surface problems early - Every successful evolution starts with accurately seeing reality. Replace the "everything is fine" culture with one where people feel safe highlighting issues without fear. Start team meetings by discussing what's not working, and publicly praise those who bring challenges to light. Make it safe for your teams to learn and iterate.
Run small experiments constantly - Instead of big, risky changes, encourage teams to identify small ways to test new approaches. If meetings aren't productive, don't wait for a company-wide overhaul - try a new format for two weeks and gather feedback. Create simple ways to track what's working and what isn't. Make it normal to say "let's try this for a month and see what we learn." The key is making experimentation feel low-stakes and routine rather than dramatic and high-pressure.
Build reflection into your rhythms - Living systems evolve through feedback loops, and organizations are no different. After projects, create space for honest reflection about what worked and what didn't. Make "what did we learn?" a standard part of every review cycle. Most importantly, demonstrate that reflection time isn't a luxury - it's how modern organizations stay relevant and effective. When teams see learning prioritized over pure execution, they'll start approaching challenges with more creativity and openness.
The shift from treating organizations like machines to treating them like living systems won't happen overnight. But as more leaders embrace this mindset, we'll start seeing workplaces that aren't just more innovative and resilient - but also more human. Places where evolution isn't just permitted - it's the point.
The successful organizations of the future won't be the ones that figured everything out upfront. They'll be the ones that got really good at learning and evolving together. The question isn't whether your organization will evolve - it's whether you'll do it intentionally or reactively.
