As organisations shift from manufacturing to services, and from manual execution to knowledge-intensive work, they enter a world of complexity that is fundamentally different in character. What once could be managed through clear inputs and observable outputs becomes far more opaque. The value created in service and knowledge work is often invisible, the tasks are fluid, and success depends less on individual performance and more on collaboration across boundaries. Yet, the dominant management structures in use today—teams, departments, functional hierarchies—were not designed to handle this complexity. They were built for a world where work stayed put and could be optimised within a silo. That world no longer exists.
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