From shaping your organization’s purpose, to re-imagining decision making, to unlocking the potential of people, this year has accelerated many of the trends that drive major organizational change.

Our Organizing for the Future thinking explores new principles, such as anti-fragility and experimentation, that are becoming increasingly critical for today’s organizations as they build more creative, adaptable, and human systems.

As leaders and their organizations prepare for the new year ahead, the following blog posts can help drive essential conversations and lay the groundwork for success.

Organizing for the Future: Why now?
By Elizabeth Mygatt, Richard Steele, and Mitya Voloshchuk

The first post of our two-part introduction to the Organizing for the Future series explores four important macro trends that are upending the old rules of management.

Organizing for the Future: A focus on three outcomes
By Elizabeth Mygatt, Richard Steele, and Mitya Voloshchu

This post—the second part of our introduction to the Organizing for the Future series—poses three pressing questions that every leader must answer to prepare their organization for the first true information revolution.

Activate purpose to create shared identity
By Naina Dhingra, Jonathan Emmett, and Bradley Halpern

Purpose is no longer optional. This post offers several considerations to help organizations take the lead in addressing issues to create a more sustainable and equitable world.

Establish a performance culture as your “secret sauce”
By Alexander DiLeonardo, Ran Li Phelps, and Brooke Weddle

Leaders can future-proof their organizations by building a performance culture. This post explores five actions that leaders can take to enable a successful performance culture transformation.

Three steps to creating more value through talent
By Emily Field, Bryan Hancock, and Bill Schaninger

Companies that manage talent with the same rigor they do financial capital typically see better results. This post outlines three steps that can help organizations truly unlock the power of talent.

Fitter, flatter, faster: How unstructuring your organization can unlock massive value
By Sarah Kleinman, Patrick Simon, and Kirsten Weerda

With the five actions in this post, leaders can implement an organizational structure that enables and supercharges their strategic goals versus holding them back.

Reimagine decision making to improve speed and quality
By Julie Hughes, J.R. Maxwell, and Leigh Weiss

McKinsey’s pre-pandemic research identified three characteristics that lead to better, faster decision making. This post shares an additional four complementary actions that can help sustain rapid decision making as companies look to organize for the future.

Keep an eye on the McKinsey Organization Blog for additional Organizing for the Future posts in 2021.