What Makes a Quantum Organization?

It is in the very nature of “quantum” that no quantum organization would be defined by a set blueprint or formula. Each will adapt Quantum Management Theory to suit the needs and demands of the field of activity or industry in which it operates. Each will evolve its own organizational culture. We will see in the following three chapters how differently the Haier Group (a manufacturing industry) in China, Roche Pharmaceutical in India (operating in the health care sector), and GE Appliances in America have shaped their quantum organizations and the different company cultures to which this has given rise. But there are eight characteristics that will be common to any such organization, and these derive from the defining elements of quantum systems outlined in Chapter 2. A quantum organization is holistic: It will see itself as a boundaryless, nonhierarchical living system in which every element of the system is defined through its relationship to all other elements. Thus it will have infrastructures and a culture that encourage and build relationships—between leaders and employees, between employees and their colleagues, between divisions and functional groups, and between the organization and its larger ecosystem—customers, the community, society as a whole, and the natural environment. A quantum organization will be flexible and responsive. It must be able constantly to adapt to the complexity and rapid change that challenge all organizations today: technological, social, and geopolitical, changing customer and employee needs and expectations. Its infrastructures must be less like Meccano or Lego and more like plasticine, its products or services constantly innovative. A quantum organization must be bottom-up, self-organizing, and emergent. Employees must be turned into responsible leaders in their own right. The CEO must surrender some or all of the three powers always previously reserved to him/her. Because quantum employees in the RenDanHeyi model must be self-organized and self-motivated, they must have the power to make decisions and the power to hire. At Haier, where employees are also self-employed, they must also have the power to distribute compensation. And, I would add, employees must always be free to reinvent their jobs and their products or services. This guarantees the emergence of an ever-new, fit for purpose organization capable of constant adaptation and innovation. A quantum organization will thrive on diversity. The guiding principle will be both/and. There will be infrastructures that mix levels of responsibility, teams that represent assorted educational, functional, and professional backgrounds, thus assuring different styles of thinking for meeting challenges and solving problems, different products and different services suited to different users—all designed “to let a thousand flowers bloom.” And there will be both some directive structures and the free-flowing lack of it, as appropriate to keep the ship on course while allowing the benefits of self-organization. A quantum organization will be like a jazz jam session. Have infrastructures and a culture that allow the free play of uncertainty and experimentation, where different questions can be asked, different goals, products and functions considered. Roles will be less fixed, employees encouraged to play “different instruments” and to experiment with the “score.” The quantum leader sees him/herself as holding the space where the background theme can emerge. A quantum organization will be playful: Existing organizations, particularly in business, are filled with fear. Indeed, I have had CEO’s insist to me that fear is a necessary tool for leaders to get the best out of their employees. The leaders themselves, constrained by rigid expectations from shareholders and the short-term results business model, are filled with fear of failure. This makes employees afraid to make mistakes, and leaders risk-averse. Quantum organizations aim to replace the negative motivation of fear with the positive ones of exploration and creativity. This requires creating a culture, and altered metrics for success, that encourage a more child-like “playfulness,” adventurously trying out new experiments, and accepting mistakes as part of any creative learning process. Both leaders and employees must feel free to “play” with ideas, free to take educated risks and learn from their mistakes, enjoy their work as a learning process. A senior leader at Roche India proudly boasted, “We are building our bridge while crossing it.” A quantum organization would be “deeply green”: Normal ecology concerns itself with protecting the natural environment. “Deep ecology” is more broadly concerned with life on earth as a total system, a human meaning and value-centered dimension that is in symbiosis with its nonhuman but life-centered dimension. Quantum Management Theory adds the dimension of “alignment with the cosmic order.” Thus concerned with an organization’s human environments, internal and external, and with its societal, cultural, and natural environments. A quantum organization will be vision-centered and value-led: The old, business-as-usual model is focused on products, profit-maximization, and a transactional relationship with shareholders and customers. By contrast, the focus of a quantum organization is its sense of purpose, the opportunities, benefits, and services brought to the customer’s overall lifestyle or needs, and a co-creative and mutually beneficial relationship with customers/users. Profit, and thus shareholder value, are still crucially important, but these are framed in terms of long-term sustainability rather than short-term benefit.