From the beginning in the mid 70s, when we conceived MG Taylor, one of the basic assumptions [link] of our way-of-working was and remains that the network [link] organization and economy is fundamentally superior to existing organizational structures and processes. [link] For this reason, NavCenters are designed to facilitate complex [link] networks - not just single organizations - and, in turn, they require the resources of a network to remain viable. [link] We call these network architectures ValueWebs. A ValueWeb is both structured [link] and emergent [link] in it’s behavior. It is highly adaptable and always changing. The process of a ValueWeb is heuristic and is held together by an armature of practice principles, rules-of-engagement and common goals while encouraging the greatest diversity possible within a fundamental unity. In this way, ValueWebs are mind-like in how they function. [link]

By mid 2003 there were 27 plus environments around the world which delivered MG Taylor work processes. By early 2010 alone, there were 15 environments in production at the AI Shop. Some of these are event focused spaces and some are designed to be full up navCenter environments able to support the entire Taylor Method. We expect the number and rate of production of navCenters to multiply over the next few years. Our goal [link] has been, since the beginning of our enterprise, to build a distributed network of environments, which make a critical mass, capable of supporting a new way of working which facilitates the transformation of individuals and organizations. The objective is ubiquity of this new, systemic and transformational way of working. Today, the work of most of these Centers is focused on their owner enterprise. This is one level of recursion; it is where the process most begin. We expect future work to progressively shift from exclusively a focus on these individual enterprises to their ValueWeb and, ultimately - within a global context - to the economic bio region of which they are a part. It is at this scale that a new set of critical and presently unattended problems and opportunities can be found. I call these “worthy problems.” A WorthyProblem™ is solvable on a local scale and also globally. Thus, by attending to the local you are attending to the global aspects of the problem. A problem in this sense describes the preferred end state, the present conditions (which many think is the problem) the bocks to success and the design strategy to get the vision built. Thus, it is solvable, useful when solved and, if it is a worthy Problem, addresses the systemic as well as the local aspects of the task. I have my own list [link] of what these might be. Your list may be different. It does not matter whose list it is as long as we start to recreate our future simultaneously at all these nested scales. Otherwise, we “design” our future by default and generate ever more unintended consequences. [link]

No single enterprise has the resources to deal with all the issues they face. Today, very large enterprises are failing under the weight of their own complexity and as the consequence of their isolation. Networks of enterprises are far more likely to accomplish requisite variety [link] with their environment. The right balance between variety, complexity, human scale, global scope, order and emergent properties can be designed into a ValueWeb architecture which employs a PatchWorks [link] organizational structure and process. At this scale and scope, NavCenters function as nodes in the network made up of patches [link] of various kinds. This organizational pattern language [link], is inherently capable of both extreme flexibility and sustained organizational continuity. It both adapts to its environment and changes its environment.

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Copyright© Matt Taylor 2001, 2002, 2003, 2010