CEO Monthly Issue 7 2018

18 CEO MONTHLY / ISSUE 7 2018 , By: JimWhitehurst, president and CEO, Red Hat CEO Insight: Rethinking HowWe Work in an Era of Disruption As the waves of disruption continue to shake every industry, we’ve hit a new tipping point. Based on conversations I’ve had with executives all over the world, all of whom face these similar challenges, I’ve come to realise that merely tweaking how we work is no longer good enough. While we know what the problem is - the pace of change wrought by digital transformation - it’s far less clear what we need to do about it. How do you remain nimble and agile enough, at scale, to deal with unknown challenges headed your way? That’s not something you can just order up online or buy off the shelf. It’s more than a technology problem. We need to encourage people to think differently. But who do you start with and how do you get them involved to make changes? In short, I believe it’s time for a radical rethink in how we organise to get work done. Those that fail to rethink will be disrupted and face extinction. And we can look to open source for the answers to dealing with digital disruption. Rethinking the organisation The hierarchies and bureaucracies that are so commonly used today were optimised for their context. They were a well-engineered solution to the problem at hand in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was all about defining a competitively-advantaged strategic position, dictating a plan and efficiently executing that plan by coordinating activities and driving compliance. But in a volatile, uncertain world, our ability to predict and define strategic positions is diminishing, reducing the value of classic long-term strategic planning and execution. Since the problem has changed, so too must the solution. When looked at this way, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the optimally-engineered solution to coordinating in today’s world will look radically different than that of the industrial era. The fundamental plan, prescribe, execution system of the past worked well in a static environment where change occurred slowly and predictably. But now, in the face of constant change, it creates brittle, inflexible and, therefore, inefficient structures incapable of keeping pace with change. Prescribed tasks also drain initiative, drive and emotion out of people. While this has been a barrier dating back to the advent of the first assembly lines, the issue has become even more acute as the nature of work has evolved away from performing rote tasks, to now, when employees have far greater expectations about the value and intrinsic returns they reap from their work.