This tells the story of what might be considered a forgotten fairy tale. With today's environment asking us what will tomorrow bring for organisations, this story explores what might become of hierarchies.

1. Anticipating
Tomorrow’s
Organisation
by
Andrew Rixon PhD

2. Did you know?
Ants “discovered”
agriculture through
division of labour and
hierarchy more than
40,000 years ago.

3. How far have we
come?

4. Welcome the modern
organisational form…

5. The Hierarchical
Organisation

7. Here’s a forgotten
story

8. Once upon a time…

9. All was well within the
hierarchy…

11. Systems, Structures,
Policies and
Procedures were all
working smoothly.

12. Until one day when
Jane saw a problem
sail in...

14. A problem that saw
the need for change...

15. Jane informed her
boss. Her boss
informed her boss…
And so on up the
hierarchy…

17. Eventually…
The CEO became
aware of the problem.

18. He agreed.
They needed to
change.

19. Jane waited and
watched as the
problem sailed on...

21. The CEO engaged his
senior leadership
team.
They started work on
a solution…

22. They engaged down
the business. Layer by
layer. The solution
eventually made it to
Jane.

24. The only problem
was…

25. There was now a new
problem arriving…

27. Jane wondered if she
would have to go
through all that
AGAIN…

28. Fortunately for Jane
there was something
on the horizon which
meant she wouldn’t
have to...

30. Unfortunately for the
organisation it also
meant the end of the
hierarchy as they
knew it.

32. Post Script:

33. A sign that we’ve
moved beyond the
ants could be…

34. We’re not so hung-up
on hierarchies…

35. Credits…

36. This piece was inspired by Bob Dick’s
article titled “Whatever happened to
bureacracy”.
Simon Kneebone cartoonist
extraordinaire produced the pictures
within.

37. Babel Fish Group, lead by Andrew Rixon PhD, is a boutique company
helping organisations and individuals to become more resilient and
adaptive in a world of increasing uncertainty through the
development and use of complexity inspired approaches and tools.
Our flagship “Thriving in Complexity” programs include:
• The Two Stories
• Getting Unstuck! How complexity helps…
• Resilience through networks and systems thinking
For more, continue reading here: http://www.babelfishgroup.com