03. Why Organizations and Societies Fail

Let’s begin with what we know from the history of human civilizations. We know of the Assyrians. Where are they now? How ‘bout the Babylonians? And the Persian Empire? The Egyptian dynasties? How about the Chinese dynasties? Aztecs? Incas? Maya? Hmmmm. Ok, what about the Ottoman Empire? Roman Empire? English Empire? I guess I’ve made my point: Organizations, governments and all other organizations fail. Not just sometimes, but always! Why?

If you examine the history of our species, particularly for the last 10,000 years, you will see that our species has survived and thrived, but all organizations, all societies and all civilizations have all failed. ALL! Yes, there are remnants of past societies and civilizations, but none intact and functional as they once were.

The logic of social sustainability is quite simple. The three core values that have sustained our species are innate to our DNA. But, they are not innate to organizations that support societies and civilizations. Organizations fail because they do not have these three sustaining values embedded in their “organizational DNA” and in their decision-making processes. Survival is harsh, and humans have learned to adapt to survive. Organizations have not. Paleontology tells us one sure fact: adapt or die. For humans, we learn to adapt as a means to continue to fulfill the values that urge us forward in life. Organizations do not have survival or sustainability written into their intentions for existence, neither do most organizations have a learning process embedded into their functions to learn from what leads to success and what leads to failure. Humans are “learning machines” and learn to adapt to survive.

In order to create governments, corporations, companies, foundations and other organizations that become sustainable, they too must amend their intentions for existence to include survival and sustainability to survive and to go on to become sustainable in the term of centuries and millennia.