I give you this riddle related to organizations: he usually dresses in black and white but he is not a zebra, he has a penetrating gaze but he is not a panther, he is usually quite heartless and he is not the university professor who gave you a 3 in the last term of your life. It is authoritarian and more distant than the kingdom of Far, Far Away in the Shrek movie. Do you want the answer? Here it goes: j-e-f-e.

As if it were an absolute monarchy that - sadly - continues to constitute a large part of organizations, the figure of the "boss" as an entity designated by a supreme God is positioned in first place in the ranking known as "the list of roles that must cease to exist in your company."

Given the intrepid advance of a technology that does not ask permission to grow, the paradigm shift became noticeable, especially in the world of organizations. Companies and institutions willing to generate exponential growth are currently in the process of changing towards liquid management models, or in other words, models that have a horizontal organization chart. 

Goodbye bosses. Hello servant leaders.

What are liquid organizations?

Rooted in the term “liquid modernity” by Zygmunt Bauman, a Polish sociologist who died in 2017, this conceptualization refers to those corporate structures that evolve and transform in a diluted environment that has the particularity of being flexible. That is where the words “adaptation” and “transformation” emerge as the north of every mechanism of action and thought.

In this type of organizations, the work structuring format is much faster, transparent and concrete. With a completely blurred vertical hierarchy, the arrangement of work roles is favored by the emergence of multidisciplinary teams that cooperate with each other on projects in a fluid manner. 

Another characteristic of liquid organizations is that their main focus is human capital, that is, the person is the center of the company and everything possible is done to recognize and retain them, not only for the position they occupy, but also for the skills and aptitudes -especially digital ones- that only enrich the organizational structure.

Companies and liquid collaborators accept changes and the speed of transformation as something natural, becoming versatile entities and individuals who know how to handle unexpected scenarios, working on innovative ideas that minimize risks.

The new leader of liquid organizations

With this, the exercise of leadership in organizations has also evolved. The image of the glass office with a closed door that no one dares to touch has disappeared. Now we find ourselves facing a liquid leader who has no walls to separate or doors of terror. He is the one who observes, inspires and motivates the talent team to foster quality relationships that invite creativity and eliminate any trace of superiority or lack of communication that could perpetuate the poorly executed figure of the boss.

This is how, one of the main challenges of flexible organizations is to achieve true self-discipline, since the primary task of each person is to develop awareness of the leading role they play in the project and how they should act to produce multiplier results as they occur. the needs.

For this reason, the constitution of a liquid person takes into account not only the expected technical requirements but also soft skills such as the intelligent development of analytical thinking, active learning, social leadership, the use and control of technology, resilience, service orientation, emotional intelligence and the power to provide original solutions.

Agility in liquid organizations

It could be said that one of the foundation stones in this cutting-edge management is nothing more and nothing less than the philosophy of agile methodologies: being agile and doing agile.

Born at the dawn of the century in which we are protagonists, the concept of agility came into this world as a solution to a series of questions that many technology specialists began to ask themselves: unproductive actions, projects that were canceled due to customer dissatisfaction, unnecessary bureaucracy and paperwork, very long work times... and more.

In this sense, the importance of agile contribution in this field has to do with taking the culture of a company from point A to point B. That is, generating a space for organizational evolution and growth that permeates not only the structure itself but also the collaborators. 

What is the plus of the agile philosophy?

• Structure: simplifies and eliminates levels, roles and responsibilities. Rationalizes and decentralizes decision making.

• Processes: free up time to focus on actions that generate value, manage and value planning and performance.

• Technology: favors the creation of tools and systems that support the implementation and implementation of rapid and dynamic changes.

• People: prepares managers to be servant leaders, manages talent through recognition and fosters organic communication networks.