Thinkers 50: Future Thinkers: New Thinking on Leadership, Strategy and Innovation for the 21st Century

CHAPTER 4

Understanding Working Life

How do you succeed in an organization? Years ago, in the increasingly distant corporate era, the route to success required aptitude and steady competence as well as a large supply of patience. Rising through the corporate ranks took time, an entire career. That was back when a career resembled a ladder with regular promotions forming the rungs. Those days are gone.

Exactly what has replaced the career ladder is less clear. At times modern organizational life seems to have more in common with an obstacle race. Organizational charts are increasingly unreliable indicators of what is really going on. The pursuit of the best way to organize a business has taken managers through a bewildering array of structures. ...