S04 Ep. 20 Bill Fischer and Lisa Gansky - A Situational Update on our Ecosystemic Future

In this season’s final episode, we talk to Bill Fischer and Lisa Gansky about how our old ideas of what's normal are disappearing. There is a need to bridge the gap between old and emerging systems, encouraging exploration and experimentation to unlock our Ecosystemic Future.

Bill Fischer has spent his entire career involved in innovation, from being a practicing development engineer in industry and government, to being an academic researcher, teacher, and writer, to being involved in several startups. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Sloan School of Management, at MIT, and an Emeritus Professor of Innovation Management at IMD, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Lisa Gansky is a social provocateur, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, advisor, international keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book, “The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing”. Her work on trust, the sharing economy, and innovation has been central in rethinking 21st-century governance, business models, and community dynamics.

The challenges organizations face in adapting to rapid change show that traditional organizational structures are no longer working. To adapt to the changing landscape, a combination of AI, Web3 technologies, and new governance models can enable flexible and modular ways of organizing.

New promises emerge through the overlap between organizations and software, unlocking new ecosystem potential where different players and customers come together, focusing on local relationships and embracing transience for more innovative solutions.

Above all, it’s important to keep up with optionality and dynamism, both key to the nature of Ecosystemic thinking: co-creation and increasing diversity and variance are going to be essential in the markets of the future.

These elements provide the backdrop for this Situational Update on our Ecosystemic Future.

Key Highlights
👉 The “not yet” is moving faster than the speed at which organizations can adapt.
👉 Un-centralizing for the future: creating smaller units with more autonomy.
👉 Challenges ahead: technology, jobs, and rethinking traditional career paths.
👉 The old model of “define, refine, and scale” is being disrupted by something more turbulent and community-oriented.
👉 The S-curve of technology is getting shorter, and the narrative behind it is different.
👉 Companies need T-shaped individuals to serve as hubs of people within ecosystems.
👉 Everything is 100% temporal, but our legal systems, tax codes, and educational systems can’t keep up with that model.

Topics / chapters
(00:00) Dynamic Models and Local Engagement: Nature's Inspiration for Future Relationships
(01:24) Bill Fischer and Lisa Gansky introduction
(02:58) Adapting Products, Services, and Work in an Uncertain World
(14:27) Redefining Careers: From Hierarchy to Portfolio of Projects
(23:31) Exploring the Potential of Web3 Governance and Programmable Protocols
(39:46) The Path to Coherence: Navigating the Convergence and Variance in Future Markets
(51:05) Bill Fischer and Lisa Gansky’s breadcrumbs

Remember that you can always find transcripts and key highlights of the episode on our website: https://boundaryless.io/podcast/lisa-gansky-and-bill-fischer

Recorded on April 13, 2023.

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Music
Music from Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://blss.io/Podcast-Music