Our thinking
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The Arion Imperative
Despite the importance of management theories in our day-to-day lives, most of them lack of predictive value and robust empirical support. In an increasingly fast-moving and complex world, this is a serious problem that is putting organisations, their employees and customers at risk. Project Arion aims to integrate a set of leading theories about organisations across a cross-disciplinary corpus of evidence into a coherent framework to address this issue.
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Emergence and organisations
Examples from nature suggest that human organisations exhibit emergent behaviour, where collective dynamics self-regulate beyond individual control. Through this lens, leadership should be viewed as a two-way conversation with the organisational ‘hive mind’, rather than top-down command-and-control. Leaders must recognise that as organisations scale, their ability to fully direct outcomes diminishes, requiring a more adaptive and tailored approach.
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The drivers of consensus
Growth isn’t just about great products or market entry—it’s about managing the friction that comes with scale. As organizations expand, keeping everyone aligned becomes a tougher challenge. Success hinges on balancing influence, judgment, and incentives to keep the team rowing in sync. By mastering these elements, companies can navigate the complexities of scaling without losing momentum.
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People, technology, and change
Technological change is about navigating the entanglement between people and their tools. As companies evolve, it becomes harder to efficiently align technology with the group’s priorities. Organisations can manage this “technology treadmill” more effectively by continuously studying whether their processes make day-to-day, rather than high-level, sense in their employees’ working lives.
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The power of priorities
In the battle between deliberate strategy and day-to-day priorities, even the best-laid plans can derail if employee attention is spread thin and misaligned with organisational goals. In a world of constant distractions, how can leaders ensure that what matters most gets done? The answer lies in understanding the scarcity and true value of attention—and the power of simplifying priorities to turn strategy into action.