If we have something important to do, how do we organize ourselves to do it?

The larger the scale, the more complex the undertaking, the higher the degree of autonomy and collaboration required, the more one's values matter, and the greater the diversity of those involved -- all intensify the challenge. Increasingly, conventional forms of organization are outmoded or ill-suited to the tasks at hand. In response, many are leading a new round of innovation in organizational strategy.

The following are topics to which I have needed to return repeatedly over the years:

Networks: The Internet shows that distributed networks can release enormous value. Applying the same logic to human organizations opens new possibilities.
Complexity: Self-organization, ongoing evolution, simplicity, and above all, “it’s a system…”
Principles: Some of our most cherished ethical and democratic principles provide excellent guidance in the design of organizations and networks.
For-benefit: The for-profit/nonprofit and public/private dichotomies have significant limitations in an interconnected and ecologically fragile world.
Ownership: Private property and governmental ownership have their places, but forming multi-party “commons” requires getting out of the box.
Authority: Entrusting decision-making authority to an individual or body is both practical and essential. Limiting and balancing such authorities turns out to be a lynchpin in human systems design.
Governance: When decision-making shifts from a centralized to a distributed form, our notions of "governance" needs to shift along with it.
Design: Down deep, organizations are merely a systems of agreements among people. When trying something new, there are considerations and processes that increase the chances of making that design elegant and effective.
Other: Legal forms, philanthropy, investment, reference models, etc.