A recent piece by Mike Fisher, “The Sea Squirt Problem”, contains one of the best metaphors I have seen for organisational blindness. The sea squirt begins life swimming through the ocean looking for somewhere to attach itself. Once it finds a suitable rock, it settles down permanently. Then it eats its own brain. It no longer needs the machinery required to navigate the world. That is the organisational problem.
Success can make you blind
Fisher’s argument is that organisations often do something very similar. When they are young, they pay attention. They talk to customers. They watch competitors. They listen to frontline staff. They notice weak signals. They question assumptions because survival depends on it. Then they succeed. Processes become established. The organisation starts optimising around what already works.
On the rocks
And then, gradually, the sensing machinery begins to look like overhead. Customer research gets reduced. Exploration becomes harder to justify. Dissent becomes inconvenient. External signals are filtered through increasingly rigid reporting structures. The organisation has found its rock.
The future is still sending signals
One of the recurring arguments in STOP PREDICTING is that the future leaks into the present. The signals are usually there. The problem is whether you are still capable of seeing them. Sensing forces you to challenge your assumptions, examine unfamiliar developments and ask whether the environment around you is changing faster than your organisation is. The forecast is not the asset. The sensing ability is.
Future fitness starts with sensing
Future fitness requires two capabilities. You need to sense what is changing. And you need to respond to what you sense Without the first, agility is useless. Without the second, foresight becomes pointless. You need to connect the twoSignal. Question. Stress test. Challenge assumptions. Create options. Act. Then repeat.
Do not eat your brain
Fisher’s most important line is that organisations should treat their perception apparatus as infrastructure rather than overhead.
- Customer conversations are infrastructure.
- External networks are infrastructure.
- Curiosity is infrastructure.
- Dissent is infrastructure.
- Time spent exploring developments that do not yet have a business case is infrastructure.
And the moment you feel successful enough to cut those things is probably the moment you need them most.
