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Moving Beyond the Slow, Hierarchical Organization
Most companies say they want to be more innovative, agile, and customer-centric. But in reality, many still operate like 20th-century factories: hierarchical, risk-averse, and slow. Jana Werner, executive in residence of enterprise strategy at Amazon Web Services, argues that organizations should instead think of an octopus: an organism that manages complexity, can work in many different modes with some autonomy, but all moving in concert toward a common goal. Werner says the future belongs to companies that distribute decision-making, empower teams at the edge, and treat innovation as everyone’s job, and explains steps you can take as a leader to make this cultural shift. She's the coauthor along with Phil Le-Brun of the HBR article "Become an Octopus Organization" and the book, The Octopus Organization: A Guide to Thriving in a World of Continuous Transformation.
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[HBR IdeaCast podcast series]
HBR IdeaCast
Episode 1056
Moving Beyond the Slow, Hierarchical Organization
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A conversation with author Jana Werner about how companies must adapt their processes to survive continuous transformation.
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December 09, 2025
Most companies say they want to be more innovative, agile, and customer-centric. But in reality, many still operate like 20th-century factories: hierarchical, risk-averse, and slow. Jana Werner, executive in residence of enterprise strategy at Amazon Web Services, argues that organizations should instead think of an octopus: an organism that manages complexity, can work in many different modes with some autonomy, but all moving in concert toward a common goal. Werner says the future belongs to companies that distribute decision-making, empower teams at the edge, and treat innovation as everyone’s job, and explains steps you can take as a leader to make this cultural shift. She’s the coauthor along with Phil Le-Brun of the HBR article “Become an Octopus Organization” and the book, The Octopus Organization: A Guide to Thriving in a World of Continuous Transformation.
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This article is about ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
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Related Topics:
- Organizational change
- Organizational development
- Managing uncertainty
- Innovation
- Decision making and problem solving