What is a Cognitive Company?
Survivors of the current crisis will share characteristics

By M. Daniel Suwyn

Globalization or Technology?

As we travel North America, we hear a lot of explanations for the mudhole the economy has sunk into. Some people are sure the problem is greedy corporations sending "our jobs" to people who will do it cheaper. Others are convinced technology has robbed us of our desire to "make something real."
 
The answer is that both may be symptoms, not causes. The question is important, however, because which symptom you choose to focus on will determine the solution you develop.

From our perspective, the country has moved out of the "Industrial Age" and "Information Age" and into the "Cognitive Age," in which the ability to learn and innovate become the most highly valued skills.

David Brooks, the moderately conservative columnist for the NY Times, has been writing a lot lately about the nation's progression into a "Cognitive Age." Here's what he says:

"The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change (hastened by competition with other companies in Canada, Germany or down the street). Thanks to innovation, manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades. Employers now require fewer but more highly skilled workers. Technological change affects China just as it does the America. William Overholt of the RAND Corporation has noted that between 1994 and 2004 the Chinese shed 25 million manufacturing jobs, 10 times more than the U.S. The central process driving this is not globalization. It’s the skills revolution. We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked."

There's a lot of information packed in that paragraph. Clearly, whether you make hydrogen-powered fuel cells, host web sites or make paper, your company needs to assess itself against this new cognitive age.

This has prompted conversations with our clients about what characteristics will mark a cognitive company. This is a list in-progress, so feel free to help us along:

1. Predictable way of making decisions that is easily understood and, whenever possible, inclusive.

2. Consistent, commonly understood ways for employees at every level to raise issues, suggest ideas and participate in solutions.

3. Aggressive efforts to maximize the contributions of all employees by mining existing talents and building on them and using education to develop new ones.

4. Connecting the company’s values with those of its employees.

5. Concentrating efforts on explaining the complex in simple and elegant terms.

6. Understanding the cognitive process – how individuals and groups process new information – is a basic skill of the Cognitive Age. More leaders need to develop that understanding.

7. Creative Bureaucracy: "You can do what you need to, unless you hear from us" rather than "Don’t do anything until you hear from us."