Strategic Agility: Part 2 - Decentralized Power allows for Agility but requires Human Solutions

The (Information) Technological evolution has lead to a democratization of nearly everything (knowledge, development and production capabilities, sales and distribution capabilities, ...). This  process is not finalized yet and will even accelerate in the future. Predictability, central control and the ability to plan have become impossible with standard approaches.

This is the reason why new entrants in every industry (area of life) are disrupting established incumbants. Some people think "iÍnnovation" is the answer, but I think it is "Decentralized Power" and "Human Solutions" wich allows for "Agility".

 

The Power of decentralized Power

Democratization of everything and an increase of complexity is happening, which is diminishing the ability to predict and plan centrally. And leads to a shift of power from organisations to individuals.
That leads to increasing returns for many. The downside is,  inreasing risks (like terrorism and loss of market power/competitve advantage) associated to decentralized power. This trend is not reversible. How can an organisation of any kind still be successful ("in control" and "produce predictability") to overcome risks?

I think part of the answer is a decentralization of power in an organized way. That means decisions become more decentral but are orchestrated by hierarchies and intelligent networks at the right scale. Not to mention there need to be rules and policies that govern behaviours of agents (insight and decision architecture). In many cases this means we need to find global (scale) solutions not only solutions for the US, EU or Asia. As the underlying systems are also global. E.g. the internet, the finance system, climate, ...

Decentralized power results in more agents to be involved in strategy formulation (process of defining strategy direction) and execution. This delegation of power allows for agility but requires human solutions. An "insight and decision architecture" to allow for broader participation needs to be designed. By that strategy direction and strategy execution cannot be seperated (anymore). Agents need to be enabled to participate in these processes.

 

Agile means effectively driving/adapting to "unpredicted" Change

Assuming this leads to an agile world. What would it mean? Understanding opportunities and risks and being able to adapt even to unpredicted change very qucikly. It would allow to be an active player in the accelerated evolution of markets, technology and society rather than being reactive.

In the following post I will focus on how the human solution could be designed.