Senescence for Hierarchies

Senescence is the process by which cells irreversibly stop dividing and enter a state of permanent growth arrest without undergoing cell death.

Definition: Nature.com

If we spend time outside, we can sense Autumn long before the leaves begin to turn and can admire the beauty of the change in that brief period before they fall and winter arrives. The trick, such as it is, is to spend time outside.

The same is true of our organisations. If we spend all our time at our desks and screens, rather than looking at them from the outside, organisational winter arrives whilst we're still in our summer clothes.

That's what it feels like now. What is happening has been signalled for a while. We've talked about it as though it's something in the future that we'll have plenty of time to plan for, and yet here we are, feeling like victims.

There has been increasing evidence of hierarchies ceding power and influence to networks, and those early falling leaves are now a cascade. 

The organisations we have b…