A conversation on organisational design during the break of a conference I was moderating in Copenhagen last week played out like this...
You might be in a business cycle where you are running a set of fairly repeatable activities, such as sales, manufacturing, distribution, support and so on. Over time you have optimised processes and got a handle on the metrics and benchmarks against which you measure and improve the business. You've also adapted to various overlapping tech shifts as they have penetrated yours and your competitors market place.
Or maybe you're trying to build something new, perhaps in an established business, where you're trying to develop at the same time as running a predictable cycle of business services, and the trick you have to master is knowing how and when to pivot between an older product line/business model and a new one, without screwing up either. That can be trickier than most people realise.
Or perhaps you're just starting the business from scratch. Which means you have a whole different set of challenges including acquiring the funding and the resources and the customers in a whirlwind dance against the clock, before your runway runs out.
So far seems pretty typical.
But then the conversation turned to Generative AI. Or more specifically, challenging old assumptions on capacity, speed, cost, self-sufficiency and a number of other balls that we all have to juggle.
A conference delegate threw it out there..."maybe its time to create some new assumptions. But not in an abstract way. Instead by really getting into the guts of how rapidly emerging AIs can be combined to relieve teams of the mundane tasks, release their creativity and scale beyond what you thought was possible with your pre-November '22 mindset."
Intriguing.
Then the subject turned to bikes, of course. We're in Copenhagen after all!
You put an electric motor on a bike and you can go faster and longer with less physical effort. But what if that bike can also go sideways...?
GenAI is of course not yet perfect, as evidenced by the bike in the Midjourneyrendering above, although the scene does look Nyhavny. But it's being adapted in super creative ways, unshackling individuals, teams and management from assumptions and constraints that were thought to be cast in stone from a business planning perspective. And with new AI models being rolled out daily, early adopter feedback loops are opening up the aperture for the rest of us to do some really creative things with our existing teams faster.
Its gonna be an exciting week...