The Time Continuum – A Co-Evolving Universe of Value

October 19, 2015

In my last post, “To co-create or not….”, I had painted a picture of the world of value-creation as comprising of an ecosystem and a co-creating web of entities. The enterprise, as we understand it in the conventional sense, has a choice as to the extent to which it intends to participate in this value ecosystem. I had also suggested, that as our world changes, driven by technological and other drivers, to participate intimately in the process of value co-creation will no longer be a choice. There is, on the other hand, an opportunity to become a keystone, or a platform / design-system within the ecosystem, that defines the grammar of value, with a sense of service.

Today, I want to add another perspective to the value-creation ecosystem idea – that of dynamics and time. Richard Normann in his wonderful book – Reframing Business, had described how all enterprises live on a time continuum. They all have a history, and at any instant, involved in the dynamic process of evolving to a future, actually not just evolving but co-evolving with all the other entities in the ecosystem.

This dynamic conception is of course very different from the static conception of the enterprise that we are used to and comfortable with. Many have argued how, these static conceptions were useful and valid when in the recent past things were relatively stable and predictable. Those conditions as we now know, are better described with the acronym VUCA (Volatile, Ambiguous, Uncertain and Complex). To this I add the letters UM to suggest unmitigated messes that have resulted from our lacunae in operating in a dynamic world and not being dynamic learners.

Not only is the enterprise evolving in time, but the value ecosystem it serves is also evolving in time. It too has a history, fundamentally non-linear, and at any instant it too is dynamically working out a state of being that resolves all the complex vectors of change that are acting on it. Where these vectors will lead in the future is immaterial to the value ecosystem since it is usually not a purposeful entity.

The enterprise on the other hand, as a purposeful entity, that intends to create a positive, distinctive and enduring impact on the target ecosystem, is concerned about how the vectors of change might impact it, and what the implications might be for its own continued existence. I will elaborate on this idea of foresight in another post.

Factoring this dynamics conception of the value universe in how we sense, act and learn is the critical challenge of the enterprise. Normann, mentioned earlier provides a wonderful nine-box framework, that allows us to integrate our knowledge and frames of the past, and the evolving future into a dynamic realization in the present.

One of the most important concepts from the perspective of the purposeful enterprise in this sense, is that the enterprise, a complex adaptive social entity, works with frames – frames that order how it makes sense of its own history, the world around it, and who it is and wants to be. These frames, too co-evolve over time to some extent. However, they, a manifestation of a complex of values, beliefs, worldviews etc, become integral to structures and systems, cultures and practices.

These cultures become rigid over time, and prevent frames from evolving. It is when frames and the structures we build on top of them, become invalid with the current and evolving context of the target ecosystem and its own context, that the enterprise, experiences misalignment and ceases to be a productive member of the value co-creation enterprise. That is when, the enterprise is no longer healthy or living to endure.

In the accelerating and dynamic, co-evolving world that we live in, enterprises must design themselves to be living enterprises, to constantly sense, act and learn, while examining the appropriateness of their frames. Without that there will be no co-evolution. Without that there is no opportunity to make a positive, distinctive and enduring impact.

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