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Q8-8 2026?

relationships with their employers, whatever that might mean by 2026. Certainly it means a loss
of control, one that is readily made public to the world.
In the 1960s, when someone wanted to send a letter to Don Draper at Sterling Cooper, his or
her secretary addressed the envelope to Sterling Cooper and down at the bottom added, “Attention:
Don Draper.” The letter was to Sterling Cooper—and, oh, by the way—also to Don Draper. Email
changed that. Today, someone would send an email to DonDraper@SterlingCooper.com or even just
to Don@SterlingCooper.com. The email address is to a person first, and then to the company.
Social media changes addresses even further. When Don Draper creates his own blog, for
example, people who respond to Don’s blog only incidentally notice in the “About Don” section of
the blog that Don works for Sterling Cooper. In short, the focus has moved in 50 years from organi-
zations covering employee names to employees covering organization names.
Does this mean that organizations will go away by 2026? Hardly. Organizations are needed to
raise and conserve capital and to organize vast groups of people and projects. No group of loosely
affiliated people can envision, design, develop, manufacture, market, sell, and support an iPad.
Organizations are required.
So what, then? Maybe we can take a lesson from biology. Crabs have an external exoskeleton.
Deer, much later in the evolutionary chain, have an internal endoskeleton. When crabs grow, they
must endure the laborious and biologically expensive process of shedding a small shell and grow-
ing a larger one. They are also vulnerable during the transition. When deer grow, the skeleton is
inside and it grows with the deer. No need for vulnerable molting. And, considering agility, would
you take a crab over a deer? In the 1960s, organizations were the exoskeleton around employees.
By 2026, organizations will be the endoskeleton, supporting the work of people on the exterior.
What all of this means for you is that mobility + cloud + social media will create fascinating
opportunities for your nonroutine cognitive skills in the next 10 years!