Dr. Philip A. Foster is a leadership/business consultant and Business Professor. He is a noted Thought Leader in Business Operations, Organizational Development, Foresight, Strategic Leadership and the Future of Business.
He holds a Masters in Organizational Leadership and a Doctorate of Strategic Leadership.
He is the bestselling author of The Open Organization. A New Era of Leadership and Organizational Development. Maximum Change Press and Organization 3.0 – The Evolution of Leadership and Organizational Theories Toward an Open System for the 21st Century. Maximum Change Press.
His latest work is Cloudforce. The Virtual Workforce of the Post-Pandemic 21st Century. Maximum Change Press
His experience includes over twenty-five years in both public and the private sector including Tier 1 consulting, media, high-tech and public relations.
Authored Comments
Ron - I believe that the idea of "leaderless" is a misnomer in many respects. Leaderless means without - which is not possible in today's structures. There has to be some form of leadership. Even in the flattest structures there is a top and a bottom. Even in a circle or Halon there is a lead. To me leaderless is another word for empowered workforce. Even in the terms of self-led there is a leader and a reporting structure. I lean more toward your understand of leaderless as well - project based, team selected. In the future, perhaps the leader will be AI or even the organizations governance.
I also want to point out that an Open Organization is not a one-size-fits-all approach but a customize-able approach to designing and leading and organization. So, at the end of the day a cloud based organization is nothing more than an Open Organization. And the organization is designed to operate optimally for its specific situation.
Don - thank you for your message. Yes... secondary and post-secondary schools must keep up. Some are doing a fair job - but most are not. As a futurist myself, I am concerned about the state and future of higher education as we know it today. In fact, I predict that higher education will implode on itself in the 10 to 20 years IF they do not start changing. The old ways of thinking have to resonate in all areas of life. Books like The Open Organization are starting to pick up interest among educators - more is certainly needed.