What is the third wave?

In 1979, futurist Alvin Toffler wrote a book called Future Shock, where he goes into the process of change in social, political and economic structure.

Alvin describes three “waves”, the first one being the Agrarian Revolution (8000 A.C.  Until the 17^th Century), during which we built the social paradigms needed to end our nomadic phase and construct the cities that gave origin to our civilization.

The second wave  was the industrial revolution (1650), changing the way the world was organized by replacing human effort with advanced tools, thus empowering mass production and expansion, the caveat was that it led to a unification of products, media and ideology, all because of the inflexibility of our tools at the time.

According to Toffler, in 1979 we were in the cusp of a third wave, in which the tools become flexible enough to bring about a change in production paradigm oriented towards individuality and self-expression.

The advent of customized products coupled with the recently established Internet would bring about an important change in human society characterized by decentralization, demassification and personalization… all necessary to satisfy the human need to differentiate.

Riding the third wave

It’s no longer important to manufacture 1.000 objects of a single model, but rather 100 objects of 100 different models… examples like the giant success of Dell computers, where each computer is built under user specifications, are key to the definition of any third wave effort.

It’s also crucial to understand that the Internet will impact every medium in every field of every economic sector in the world…without exceptions. A good example is NetFlix, a company that “rents” movies online for the user to watch whenever he wants through video streaming,  this disruptive change devastated Blockbuster, the largest movie rental chain in the U.S., in a single quarter.

The challenge presented by the Internet is the velocity of change: The entire world is exposed to the same information, presenting equal opportunities for any organization.

At any time an equivalent of “Netflix” will appear in your market, with a disruptive innovation so profound that you must be able to adapt with agility and be willing to re-structure your Business Model in less than a quarter.

To summarize, if you want to ride the third wave you need:

• Creativity and flexibility to generate products that promote differentiation and adapt to the users Identity and need of self-expression.
• Productivity to cover needs on a global scale by inserting your product/service/industry on the Internet before somebody else does… and if the competition is already there, you must have the flexibility to adapt quickly.
• Adaptability to change your business model with excellence when the market thus dictates.

The key to success

First you need to change a few paradigms:

• Today’s technology is accessible to almost anyone, and there is an open solution to most problems, trade secrets are no longer the key.
• All providers are just one Google away from potential distributors, controlling the chain of supply is no longer the key.
• Business processes have escalated to a level of speed and complexity that no single person can effectively manage, individual leadership is no longer the key.

If not the recipe, or the kitchen, or the cook… What else is there?

There is the sum of all the parts in a multi-disciplinary team that is motivated, focused and committed; the key to the third wave is the people.

It no longer suffices to have “employees”, because these will not have the level of commitment and motivation necessary to survive in the market.

Another paradigm shift: Variable payments don’t work either. Of course you have to provide a just wage for the work and get the money issue out of the way, but systems based on monetary rewards are still second wave and recent studies have demonstrated that they do more harm than good.

In the third wave you need a team that is intrinsically motivated, driven forward by the primary factors that Positive Psychology and Neuroscience have determined as optimal:

1. Autonomy: If there is something that differentiates us from the rest of life on earth, is our impulse to be free. This motivator has generated enormous acts of nobility and courage that we remember as pivotal points in history.

When a person has the freedom to work with his own rhythms, under his own terms, he will fight to retain that autonomy with all his effort and any means necessary, a company of co-creators with a shared focus will fight to maintain its competitive advantage and self-sustainability with much more energy than a group of obedient subordinates.

2. Mastery: Another primary impulse is to be masters of our craft, the samurai dedicated their lives to be supreme in the use of the sword, Zen monks are focused beyond measure in the search of enlightenment, Greek masters searched for the secrets of nature with passion and constancy…none of them had as a final objective a new pair of Calvin Klein shoes.

By empowering your team to achieve mastery in many disciplines, the result will not only be a more capable team, but also a more motivated one.

3. Purpose: What is the point of all this effort? If for the organization, company or even family, the goal is collecting good dividends at years end, the objective of the members will be equivalent in measure: Getting a good paycheck. The result is that everyone pushes on their independent directions and there will be no cohesion of efforts.

One of the biggest tragedies of our modern world is that we have lost our sense of purpose; few people today set long term goals or life objectives. The top level of Maxwell’s Pyramid of human motivation is self-realization, if there is nothing to achieve then this point is impossible to reach.

The organization must have a common end that transcends the financial, and must help its members to find their own objectives, giving a sense of purpose that provide cohesion of efforts with the determination of the Samurai Warrior, the focus of the Zen Monk and the passion of the Greek Master.

Once the organization creates a context of work that allows a team to have autonomy, mastery and purpose; leadership is there to facilitate the work, putting itself at the service of the Team to maximize its production capacity and guide efforts towards common goals, staying the course without limiting flexibility.

It’s a juggling act between structure and innovation… a difficult to achieve balance that if found will surely enable you to ride the third wave.

I invite you watch the following videos:

This is a TED talk by Dan Pink, acclaimed business author, on intrinsic motivation (20 min):

The second is a Tech Talk at the 2010 Google IO (which I had the good fortune to attend), by Brian W. Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman, about the new role of the leader: Facilitating the work of the team. (60 minutes)

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