Exploring the fundamental grammar through which
organizations are created, organized and brought
to life.
A QUESTION
What exactly comes into existence when
we incorporate an organization?
A company may begin with a legal act.
But incorporation creates something more than a legal entity. It brings together people, purpose, resources, relationships, capabilities, responsibilities and expectations. Gradually, these separate elements begin to form an organized whole.
From Individuals to Organization
A legal act can create an entity. But an entity does not automatically become an
organization. An organization begins to emerge when different elements are brought into a meaningful relationship with one another.
People gather around a purpose.
Resources are committed.
Activities are undertaken.
Capabilities begin to develop.
Relationships form.
Responsibilities are distributed.
Decisions need to be made.
Gradually, what may have begun as a collection of separate elements starts to acquire coherence. Something begins to organize itself.
The important question, therefore, is not only:
What comes into existence when an organization is incorporated?
It is also:
How do the different elements of its existence become an organized whole?
This is where the inquiry into the Grammar of Incorporation begins.
Elements of an Organization
An organization is not a single thing. It is a coming together of many different
elements.
There are people.
There is a purpose that gives their collective action direction.
There are resources that make action possible.
There are activities through which intentions are translated into action.
Capabilities develop through knowledge, experience and practice.
Relationships connect people and activities.
Structures provide a degree of continuity and coordination.
Governance helps guide decisions, responsibilities and accountability.
None of these elements, by themselves, is an organization.
Organization begins when they become meaningfully connected.
From Elements to Coherence
The challenge, therefore, is not simply to acquire the elements required for an organization. It is to bring them into a relationship that enables the whole to function.
A collection of talented individuals does not automatically become a capable organization.
A set of resources does not automatically create value.
A structure does not automatically create coordination.
Rules do not automatically create responsibility.
The different elements must somehow learn to work together.
Purpose must find expression in action.
People must develop relationships.
Activities must connect into flows of work.
Decisions must find their way through the organization.
Resources must be directed towards the creation of value.
Coherence is what begins to transform a collection of elements into an organization.
Organization as a living Whole
Once an organization begins to acquire coherence, something more interesting happens.
The relationships between its elements begin to matter as much as the elements themselves.
The organization develops patterns.
Work begins to flow.
Decisions create consequences.
Experiences become learning.
Learning changes capability.
Capability creates new possibilities.
The organization is no longer simply a legal entity containing people and assets.
It begins to develop its own way of functioning.
Its own patterns.
Its own memory.
Its own capabilities.
Its own culture.
In this sense, incorporation may be an event.
But organization is a continuing process.
The Grammar of Incorporation
Every organization must somehow answer a set of fundamental questions.
Why does this organization exist?
What value is it here to create?
Who and what must come together?
How will work be organized?
How will decisions be made?
How will responsibilities be distributed?
How will resources be brought into action?
How will the organization learn, adapt and continue to evolve?
The answers may differ from one organization to another.
But the underlying questions remain.
The Grammar of Incorporation is an inquiry into these fundamental elements and the relationships that bring them together.
It explores how an entity acquires purpose, structure, capability, relationships and the capacity for coordinated action.
Not simply:
How is a company incorporated?
But:
How does something become an organization?
Still becoming…
This framework is an evolving inquiry.
Some parts have found their form.
Others are still being explored.
Because an organization itself is never completely finished.
It continues to learn.
To change.
To reorganize.
To become.
Perhaps the Grammar of Incorporation is ultimately an inquiry into that becoming.