The Octopus Organization: A Guide to Thriving in a World of Continuous Transformation

Le-Brun and Werner, executives at Amazon Web Services, debut with a smart guide to building nimble companies. Most organizations, they argue, operate like the Tin Man, slow-moving automatons with no heart, but in order to thrive in today’s competitive marketplace, they need to behave like the octopus, an organism with tentacles that work together but can think for themselves. To help companies make this transition, the authors unpack 36 “antipatterns,” or habits that keep organizations stuck, and suggest ways to correct them. Companies should, for example, eschew “Orwellian management-speak” (like the term rightsizing to mean layoffs) in favor of clear language to promote transparency and a sense of shared purpose. Managers should also avoid the obsession with meaningless performance metrics and instead embrace qualitative data, like customer stories and employee feedback. Likewise, the authors encourage accepting “good enough, reversible decisions,” which promote learning and speed, over exhaustive attempts to remove as much risk as possible. Relentless information-gathering, they explain, doesn’t erase uncertainty but rather presents more potential options, often leading to decision paralysis. Despite their occasional use of jargon, the authors have a sharp eye for the stultifying culture of large companies. The result is a practical resource for addressing common corporate problems. (Dec.)