The Octopus Organization

A Guide to Thriving in a World of Continuous Transformation

By: Phil Le-Brun, Jana Werner

Narrated by: Mike Cooper

Large-scale organizational transformations usually don't work. What originally starts as a way of improving an organization becomes an all-consuming distraction, a value-destroying set of activities that, even as it becomes clear they will fail, must be completed at any cost.

But there is a better way: becoming an Octopus Organization.

The octopus is everything you need your organization to be in these turbulent times: extremely smart, endlessly adaptable, and highly resilient. Its eight arms work beautifully in concert, but crucially, each arm can think for itself if it needs to work independently. Your organization can work as intelligently and as beautifully as these amazing creatures, if you change your operating model.

Authors Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner, veteran executives and leaders in Amazon Web Services who've worked with hundreds of large firms, show you how to become an Octopus Organization in this hyperpractical manual of best practices from organizations that have left behind the old, broken model of large-scale change and adopted this modern, nimbler model of small-scale, continuous change.

©2026 Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner (P)2026 Ascent Audio