The New Organization

The book that predicts new ways to structure organizations more effectively is now available in paperback. Much of what Colin Hastings describes has become reality but many organizations are still striving to find new ways of working. There is a wealth of ideas and examples which are highly relevant. This book offers the inspiration to make it happen.

The New Organization takes you on provocative and imaginative journeys, challenging your very conception of what an organization is. It offers the integrative framework of organization networking to stretch you and shows how to translate new and inspirational possibilities into today's reality.

Pressing organizational questions answered include:

• How to create an environment in which knowledge workers will thrive
• How to leverage informal networking to stay 'small at heart' as you grow bigger
• How to realize the potential of communications technologies
• How to be successful at the project way of working
• How to share know how
• How to keep complex structures simultaneously loose and light

• Part I: The quest for the New Organization
1. Breaking free — old models and new images
• Organizational Scrabble
• The old rules
• Organizational gridlock
• Burgeoning boundaries
• The prizes
• The new rules
• The hallmark of the New Organization
• Radical decentralization
• Intense interdependence
• Demanding expectations
• Transparent performance standards
• Distributed leadership
• Boundary busting
• Networking and reciprocity
• Comparing cultures
• Pictures in the mind
• Liquids
2. Making sense — understanding the different aspects of networking
• Networking: what does it mean?
• The radar screen model
• Internally/externally driven
• People/technology driven
• Local, regional or global focus
• Organizational networking
• Networking within the organization
• Networks
• The delusion of delayering
• Networking between organizations
• The pressure to ccoperate
• Patterns of partnership
• Strategic mentality
• Hard networks — connecting computers
• Information
• Communications technology
• Connectability
• Strategy
• Soft networking — connecting people
• The informal organization
• Connections: letting go of hangups
• Currencies
• External networks
• Reciprocity
• Pictures in the mind: Molecular structures
3. Three pathfinders — a range of different approaches
• Scanning for Pathfinders
• Pathfinder: ABB
• Formation
• Twelve hundred building blocks
• Networking the 1200
• The Business Area leader
• The country CEO
• The Executive Committee
• Networking processes
• Fighting national biases
• Continuous exchange of learning
• When in doubt, overcommunicate
• Barriers to progress
• Pathfinder: DPE
• International parcel delivery
• A network of independents
• Mutual expectations
• How it holds together
• Developing the business
• DPE's future
• Pathfinder: Digital
• History
• Advanced communications technology
• The social side of technology
• Technology affects structure
• The culture and its consequences
• The mature Pathfinder
• Pictures in the mind: Chess
• Part II: Growing the culture of organizational networking
• Introduction
4. Collective individualism — how to turn knowledge workers into effective networkers
• Pathfinder: The Danish biotechnology industry
• Exotic organizations
• Occasions and opportunities
• The igniting idea
• Crystals of collaboration
• Beyond the barter economy
• The unwritten code of conduct
• Both/and, not either/or
• Individual barriers to networking
• Need for autonomy
• Need for recognition
• Individualism
• A sense of loss
• Organizational barriers to networking
• Permission
• The exclusive club
• 'Busyness'
• Learning how to be effective
• Building a network
• mapping networks
• Developing networking skills
• A skills framework
• Rewarding organizational networking
• Rewarding know-how
• Peer ratings
• The new status symbols
• Pictures in the mind: Textiles
5. Soft networking — how to keep the feeling of being small as we grow bigger
• Pathfinder: World Health Organization: The Healthy Cities Project
• The project concept
• The guiding values
• The criteria for joining
• The local city network
• National networks
• Intercity collaboration
• External networks
• Learning and support mechanisms
• A taste of success
• Accelerating personal networks
• Investing in soft technologies
• Conferring Mobility policies
• Building design
• Conventional technologies
• Branding and identity
• Pictures in the mind: Ocean yachting
6. Project working — how to impelemtn widespread team working
• Pathfinder: KWS 2000
• A network of environmental projects
• Consensus building
• Structuring the network
• Subprojects
• Network communications
• Left out and behind
• Conclusion
• Team working by means of projects
• The key applications
• Using the project approach
• Practical project problems
• Conflicting expectations
• Worlds apart
• Ineffectual meetings
• Looking outwards
• Successful project working
• Managing the project portfolio
• New rules of assembly
• Training and development
• Pictures in the mind: Gardening
7. Sharing know-how — how to maximize the return on your key asset
• Pathfinder: The BP HSE Technology Team
• The vision
• Planning and learning together
• Outcomes
• Skills awareness
• Conclusion
• Know-how as an asset
• Semantics
• Stocktaking
• The know-how iceberg
• Limiting factors
• Making the invisible, visible
• Codifying people's experience
• The practical applications
• The traditional method
• Design principles
• Themes and programmes
• Pictures in the mind: The organiscope
8. Hard networks — how to realize the potential of new communication technology
• Pathfinder: Benetton
• The elements of the network
• Soft and hard network
• Culture and style
• Issues
• Frustrated expectations
• The potential
• EDI
• Disappointment
• Automation or transformation?
• IT — a barrier to change?
• Standardization is not centralization
• The senior management problem
• Getting IT right
• A new role for IT
• Managing interdependence
• Effective implementation
• Pictures of the mind: Galaxies
• Part III: The software of the New Organization
9. Holding it all together — how to stop it all falling apart
• The nightmare of anarchy
• Visible integration
• The new networking roles
• Managers of energy
• The multiplier effect
• Invisible integration
• Organizational networking
• Senior management's role
• Transparent benchmarking
• The new accountability
• The New Organization culture
• Demolishing old buttresses

Yet another book about the "new" organisations.

But it is at least well written.