My collaboration with Dr. Reg Butterfield was originally to find a new model for organization change that would fit the needs of our VUCA (volatile, uncertain, chaotic, & ambiguous) World. Instead, we discovered the internal barriers that limited change in multiple ways. Our focus then turned to the interaction of organization design and organization change – how can an organization be built for change? Along this path, we investigated how organizations could be designed for work instead of being designed for control, an idea of change as a business model, and effectuation as a foundation for an entrepreneurial mindset. We also investigated organizations testing alternate structures and operating styles to learn what was possible and the difficulties they faced. From this, a synthesis of principles evolved that enabled a new way of thinking about organizations and how to transition in that direction. The result is a distributed way of working that is purpose aligned and principle driven. Further work goes into how to transition a mature organization without waiting for an existential crisis.

Dr. Ross Wirth

Dr. Ross Wirth

Academic & professional experience in organizational change, leadership, and organizational design.