What we're seeing in the field

The necessary emergence of decentralized, adaptive organizations

The org chart is dying.

After eight years running Jumpsuit as a distributed organization of independent contractors (I'm more recent, but the form has proven itself for years), and now piloting adaptive structures with clients, I can tell you what's happening: the "boxes and lines" model can't keep up anymore. AI didn't kill it—AI just made it obvious that it was already dead.

The energy for this shift is palpable. When we announced we were piloting these approaches, we had our first client ready to move in less than three weeks. Since then we've added more, and I've experimented with coaching clients. The demand tells us something important: business is ready.

We're not alone in this work. People have been developing these ideas for years—we're part of a larger movement collectively creating the future that's emerging right now. What's different is timing. The shifting dynamics make this necessary rather than optional.

Why now?

The ideas aren't new. People have been talking about self-directed teams and distributed decision-making for decades. What's new is that three forces converged to make these ideas inevitable.

First, hybrid work. Location independence isn't going back in the bottle. Workers tasted autonomy and won't return to the industrial model of bodies in seats.

Second, portfolio careers. Layoffs pushed knowledge workers into multiple projects and roles. They think like entrepreneurs now, not employees.

Third, AI time collapse. Small teams create in hours what used to take months. When a prototype happens faster than scheduling an executive meeting about that prototype, permission structures don't just slow you down—they make you uncompetitive.

The control leaders think they need is what's killing them. The oversight, the approval processes, the hierarchical decision-making—this is what makes organizations brittle when the world demands constant adaptation.

What we're building instead

These organizations don't look like traditional companies. They challenge what "organization" even means.

Instead of clear inside/outside boundaries, there's a nucleus surrounded by orbiting layers: core team, employees, contractors, collaborators, fans, customers. The edges blur because that's where the energy lives.

Roles aren't permanent job descriptions. They emerge when needed, get stewarded by whoever steps up, serve their purpose, then compost naturally. People occupy multiple roles that evolve based on what the organization needs and what energizes them.

Governance runs on consent, not control. Teams self-organize around outcomes, negotiate their own protocols, operate autonomously within containers aligned to larger purpose. Self-correcting systems that adapt without asking permission.

Leadership is changing

Betting on one person is risky. It assumes they'll stay consistent, have the answers, stick around forever. It wastes everyone else's intelligence.

Alan Mulally got this at Boeing and Ford. He wasn't doing the work—he created containers for other people to do their best work. Profound results, but they required his constant presence.

The leaders we work with are becoming ecosystem designers, not decision dictators. Their job isn't having answers—it's creating conditions where collective intelligence emerges. Sensing over certainty. Probabilistic navigation over rigid planning.

This connects to something deeper. AI is automating propositional knowledge—the abstract, factual stuff that's been the knowledge economy's currency. Value moves to what can't be automated: relationship, presence, participatory intelligence.

The shift from "knowing-about" to "knowing-with." From individual expertise to collective wisdom. From certainty addiction to comfortable ambiguity.

What it looks like

We start by activating communities at the margins. There's always a constellation of people—some inside, some orbiting—with energy and ideas but no outlet. These become collaborators, fans, customers. Boundaries stay fluid.

Small experimental containers let people run pilots without traditional approval. The ideas are better than top-down planning. They come with built-in momentum from the people who conceived them.

Results become governance. Experiments that work get resources. Those that don't compost naturally. More efficient than committee decisions.

Technology helps but not how you'd expect. DAOs struggled because they were solutions looking for problems. Strong organizational purpose makes DAO tools powerful for collective decision-making and system visibility.

How to recognize it's working

Traditional metrics lag behind real changes. The leading indicators are subtler but more predictive.

Ideas emerge from unexpected places. Teams solve problems before management knows they exist. People volunteer outside job descriptions. Customer feedback directly influences products without traveling through layers.

Adaptation accelerates. Time from problem to solution collapses because people closest to work have authority to act. Innovation becomes regenerative—continuous evolution, not periodic disruption.

The organization becomes resilient to individual departures. No single person can break the system or make it run. Intelligence is distributed.

First moves

People change when not changing hurts more than changing. Hybrid work, portfolio careers, AI acceleration—the pain of staying the same is finally acute enough.

Start with small pilots in protected containers. Like Skunk Works at Lockheed—somewhat walled off from corporate immune systems until they prove value.

But these need to scale, not stay isolated. Build momentum through visible wins. Expand the number of people who've experienced the new way.

Model the future, don't just talk about it. You can't understand these approaches theoretically. Power comes through direct experience of what's possible when people organize themselves around meaningful work.

The investor question

VCs want heroic leaders and clear org charts. Who's accountable for revenue? Who owns the P&L? This creates tension with distributed intelligence.

But distributed intelligence is the safer bet. Organizations where collective capability is competitive advantage are more resilient than those dependent on individual brilliance. Less key person risk. More adaptive capacity.

Due diligence questions need evolution. Not "Who's the CEO?" but "How does collective intelligence emerge? What are the sensing mechanisms? How quickly can this pivot?"

Business results speak clearly. Engage your full ecosystem—including margin people who aren't employees—and you get higher engagement, stronger innovation, better market responsiveness. Direct translation to margins and market share.

The larger shift

This organizational evolution is part of something bigger: transition from a knowledge economy built on individual expertise to a wisdom economy built on collective intelligence.

AI automates cognitive work that's been the knowledge economy's foundation. Human value moves to what can't be automated: sensing, relating, holding complexity, navigating ambiguity, creating meaning together.

Organizations embracing this aren't just more adaptive—they're more human. People bring full capabilities to work. Innovation emerges from relationship, not mandate. Purpose guides decisions, not hierarchy.

This isn't romantic nostalgia. It's transcend-and-include: using technology to strengthen human connection rather than replace it. When abstract becomes digital and digital becomes disposable, relational endures.

The time came because alternatives—command-and-control structures designed for a different era—can't match the speed of change. Organizations that survive will harness collective intelligence, embrace adaptive structures, remember that all organizing is human organizing.

What we're seeing isn't just new work structure. It's a new way to be together in service of something larger. That might be the most important innovation of all.