Often when we introduce the notion of employees having an important place at the table of strategy development and business model innovation, we are met with incredulity. “Wouldn’t that just introduce chaos?” “You’ll have the inmates running the asylum.” “Employees just want to be heads down in their own jobs – they don’t have time or interest for thinking about the organization as a whole.”

Until recently, these types of responses would have been typical. But today we’re at an inflection point. Organizational leaders have become acutely aware that the old ways of managing just aren’t working. The digital revolution of ever cheaper information is changing the rules of the game. Since the 1960s, several related long-term trends, independent of economic cycle, have come to dominate the business world:

• The pace of innovation has increased.

• Competition has radically intensified, as reflected in both a reduction in the concentration of industries (meaning there are more competitors in a given market space) and an increase in topple rates (companies in the Fortune 100 are less likely to still be there five years hence).

• Overall, corporate returns on both assets and equity have steadily declined. On the demand side, with more information about pricing and quality, consumers are able to make better decisions that cut into margins once protected by brand. On the supply side, knowledge workers better understand their worth and are taking advantage of greater career mobility. The result: winners are barely holding on to what they had and laggards are taking it on the chin.