re-Humanize: How to Build Human-Centric Organizations in the Age of Algorithms using Decentralized Design

Join an Author Book Discussion

February 4 | 6 – 7 PM (ET)

re-Humanize: How to Build Human-Centric Organizations in the Age of Algorithms outlines a vision for how to navigate the digitalization of organizations in a way that improves their goal-centricity while preserving or enhancing their human centricity. Phanish presents to the ODF community Chapter 8: Democratizing Organization Design using Decentralized Design as an approach to balance human and goal centricity to the practice of organization design suitable for the challenge of balancing human and goal centricity as organizations continue to absorb advanced digital algorithms.

Phanish will discuss the three key pillars of Decentralized Design:

1.  Allowing diversity in designs across sub-units.

2.  Ensuring local participation in the formation of designs to leverage local knowledge and foster motivation.

3.  Utilizing AI algorithms and data to support participative design and ensure global coherence of the resulting designs.

Decentralized Designing, neither entirely new nor a panacea, is useful in the impending struggle to balance goal centricity and human centricity in the journey ahead for organizations.

Registrants will receive a digital copy of re-Humanize Chapter 8 in advance of the presentation. Please bring your curiosity. You do not need to have read the book to enjoy the conversation or participate in the discussion.

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Phanish Puranam, Ph.D., INSEAD Roland Berger Professorship Chair of Strategy & Organizational Design, INSEAD-Wharton Alliance Research Director, and INSEAD Desmarais “Organizations and Algorithms” research program.

Phanish’s research in organizational science focuses on how organizations work, and how we can make them work better. His current work focuses on different ways in which intelligent algorithms relate to organizations, in their roles as tools (e.g., machine learning applied to organizational data), team-mates (e.g., human-AI collaboration), and as templates for organizing (e.g. blockchain, metaverse). In addition to publishing his research extensively in peer reviewed journals, Phanish has authored several books.

His latest book re-Humanize (Dec, 2024) is written for a general audience and explores what organizations of the future might look like, in the light of rapid changes in technology and culture.

Phanish obtained his PhD at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. He served as faculty of London Business School faculty until 2012. At INSEAD Phanish Puranam founded and co-directs the Transforming Your Business with AI and the AI for Business programs for senior executives. For Phanish’s full CV and publications https://www.insead.edu/faculty-personal-site/phanish-puranam.