2. 2
For the last eight years, we’ve been
changing organizations for the better.
Don’t know us? We’re , an organizational design and strategy
firm in NYC. We help big companies organize for an uncertain future.
3. 3
And what’s more, the change is sticking.
Our customers are more engaged, leaner, and shipping faster than
they used to. And their transformation deepens even after we leave.
4. 4
We’re building Ever-Better Organizations.
Not just Responsive, not just evolutionary, not just exponential…
but improving every day in ways that are favorable for everyone.
5. 5
We’ve joined up with .
Two companies powered by the idea that big decisions and ideas
shouldn’t come from the center, but from the edge.
6. 6
Our organizations see the same
problems in the world. We’ve just been
solving them from different angles.
7. 7
410 Days
Empire State Building Lockheed P-80
143 Days
Oxo Good Grips
1,095 Days
Quirky believes it’s too hard today to bring great ideas to market.
Built in Built in Brought to market in
8. 8
Employee Engagement Productivity v. Wages v. ROA Corporate Mortality
Undercurrent believes good work is getting harder to do.
25% Actively
Disengaged
We’re more productive
but making less money
60 years in 1970
16 years today
Gallup Deloitte, Dept. of Labor Creative Destruction
9. Undercurrent + GE
9
Quirky + GE
We structured GE Aviation around
a community of engineers
The Quirky Community
reinvented the lightbulb
Undercurrent & Quirky have solved this problem by organizing for the edge.
(For the inventors of the lightbulb, NBD)
30 Days 100 Days
(That’s a 3D-printed jet engine mount, NBD)
15. 15
Organized By Undercurrent Powered By Quirky
Vision & Strategy Validation Science
Ways of Working Community-Fueled Invention
Ways of Organizing Commercial Preparation
16. Since 2007, we’ve studied and
invested in the most adaptive and
audacious companies of our time.
As a result, we have identified a
Responsive operating model that
unlocks market-beating pace and
innovation.
We’re dedicated to continuous
improvement of our model and method
at all scales and in every industry, and
we partner with large organizations to
spread it globally.
As a result of our acquisition, we now
have a test-kitchen that’s an order of
magnitude larger than we had before
(300 employees), a wealth of new
resources and expertise to bring us
closer to our clients and prospects, and
a community-building capability that
few can touch.
16
Undercurrent 2.0
See more @
responsive.org
See how we’ll change
17. 17
A 10x Test-Kitchen
Senior leaders with whom we can test new
ways of organizing. “Yeah, it works on 30
people, but what about 300?” Teams of all
different stripes and sizes that we can
invite to the process.
#credibility #stimulus #diversity
We’re part of
18. 18
10x Resources & Expertise
Strategists talking to engineers about the
future of manufacturing. Our (tiny)
software team working with Quirky’s to
scale our offering. New career-paths for
UCers who want to focus on product.
#credibility #diversity
#career-path
#polish
#scale #software
We’ll access
19. 19
A 1,000x Community
Quirky has built their business on
community. They’ll show us the ropes, and
we’ll work together to gather a critical
mass of org designers and business
leaders in search of an ever-better future.
#momentum #software#exponential
We’ll build
20. To continue the momentum we’ve
built in the first trimester of 2015,
we’ll focus on four key investments:
1. Research & Development of Owned
IP by partnering with MIT, HBS, the
Santa Fe Institute, and adding more
C-level fellowships
2. Continuing to Eat Our Own Dog Food,
using UC and Quirky as a living lab for
organizational design
3. Software for Organizational Design,
building on top of our internal
Backstage review software and
external Pulse organizational
diagnostic – repurposing current and
adding new developer talent
4. Preparation & Professionalization by
adding new UCers with org design
experience, designing new allocation
models, and improving knowledge
sharing
20
Our priorities
21. Our output is focused on
capability, not co-dependence
Our industry is famous for producing
massive, highly rigorous documents in the
worst case, and in the best case
implementing massive, top-down change.
All at a similarly massive cost.
We’re working to build evolutionary +
exponential practices that lead to
sustainable inside-out change.
Vision & Strategy
We align teams around a purpose and a
path forward
Ways of Working
We coach teams to adopt new processes
that foster responsiveness
Ways of Organizing
We transform organizations using models
that increase speed, innovation and
learning while minimizing risk
21
Our services
22. We’re a living lab for 21st century
work. So we are…unique.
Our team reorganizes monthly based on
customer and employee feedback. We
are incredibly standardized, yet highly
permissive. We work in public and make
almost everything transparent internally.
All our projects have the same structure,
including start/end dates (see above) and
cost, making decisions easier for our
customers and increasing the amount of
creative license available for team
members.
We are generatively different, putting cultural
growth over cultural fit. We strive for empathy,
wholeness, commitment, and equity, among an
evolving set of values for workplace presence.
22
About us
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