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Tracing the Origins of Modern Organisational Design

Why Do We Still Work This Way?


What if the way your organisation runs today, team structures, daily rhythms, and performance systems were never designed for your world at all?


We set out to trace the roots of the modern world of work on the Sooner Safer Happier 1st Industrial Revolution Tour. We visited the sites where it all began: the first factory system, the first production line, the first shift work, the first time human labour was treated as a repeatable input rather than a creative force.


The parallels with today’s world? Chilling.


These “firsts” laid the foundations of the systems we still operate within. And for many leaders, understanding this origin story is the key to building something better.

Here’s what we saw and what it taught us about delivering Better Value Sooner Safer Happier (BVSSH) today.


Guided Tour at Cromford Mills
Guided Tour at Cromford Mills

The First Factory: Cromford Mills and the Blueprint of Control


Our journey began where it all began, Cromford Mills, Derbyshire, 1771. This was the first factory in the world. Not just a building, but a whole new system of work.


Sir Richard Arkwright didn’t just mechanise cotton spinning; he redefined labour itself.

At Cromford, we saw the beginning of fixed-hour, clock-driven labour as the norm in modern work, the origin of the 9-to-5 mindset (even though the hours were much longer).


Built in 1771, Cromford Mill was the world’s first successful water-powered cotton spinning mill, a cornerstone of the Industrial Revolution. Arkwright, known as the "Father of the Factory System," launched the first production line and pioneered the use of water power.


Sir Richard Arkwright - Father of the Factory System & The Richest Commoner
Sir Richard Arkwright - Father of the Factory System & The Richest Commoner

It was fascinating to learn that he introduced weekly wages, night shifts as we understand them today, and even dictated the rhythm of work with a bell from 6 am to 7 pm.


Arkwright operated two 13-hour shifts at Cromford Mill, enabling 24-hour continuous production, for it’s time this was revolutionary. Time was tracked by the factory bell, not by task completion or daylight—a major cultural shift. Workers were expected to arrive, work, eat, and leave at prescribed times. Lateness was punished by factory overseers, and new roles were inserted between owners and workers - overseers.


Remarkably, Arkwright also introduced early forms of worker welfare: half-pay sick leave, an on-site doctor, and Sunday schools for education. He rejected corporal punishment, opting instead for fines for rule-breaking. He purposefully attracted spinners’ families to Cromford, placing children in teams where relatives worked. The mill had mainly female overseers, and the workforce was predominantly children. Fathers often remained as independent spinners, buying thread from the mill.


Arkwright was hyper-focused on one thing: the bottleneck of spinning cotton thread, what he famously called “spinning gold.” His breakthrough was harnessing the water wheel to create the first continuous, non-human source of industrial power, marking a shift away from reliance on human or animal labour. He spent five years perfecting the factory process and the watermill before building a second mill, which became a blueprint for others to follow.


Notably, he never risked his own money, instead scaling his operations through strategic investment. He was said to have a stake in around 110 mills, through leasing, shares, and financing. A large portion of his wealth came from his patents; one of the wealthiest men in England he was often referred to as the richest commoner, amassing wealth rumoured to be able to pay off the UK treasury debts twice over. 


Arkwright’s Cotton Mills by night, 1734 – 1797 Joseph Wright of Derby ARA
Arkwright’s Cotton Mills by night, 1734 – 1797 Joseph Wright of Derby ARA

At the time it was built, Cromford Mill was the tallest building in the world - five stories high! People travelled from all over to marvel at it lit up at night.


What Was New at Cromford (1771 Onward)?

  • The first widespread use of fixed working hours, dictated by time, not task

  • The first end-to-end production line, where workers no longer saw the whole product

  • The first large-scale functional role silos, dividing labour to optimise output

  • The first salaried workforce prioritising predictability over creativity

  • The first signs of treating people as interchangeable parts in a machine, with a rigid rhythm imposed from above

  • The first hierarchical systems (overseers and supervisors) built to manage mechanised labour at an industrial scale


And yet, Arkwright was also one of the first industrialists to experiment with worker welfare, offering sick pay, emergency healthcare, leadership development, and education. Arguably not out all altruism, but because people were essential.


The Significance?

This was the template. Much of what we call "organisational design" today began here. And the DNA hasn’t changed as much as we might think.



Beyond the Blueprint: A New Future of Work


The Sooner Safer Happier 1st Industrial Revolution Tour made one thing clear:

We can’t build the future of work if we don’t understand its beginnings.


We saw the first time people were treated as cogs, and the first time someone questioned it.We saw the first systems that prioritised compliance over autonomy, and the seeds of resistance that grew from it.


Now it’s our turn.


Let’s stop working like it’s the beginning of the 1st Industrial Age and start working like it’s the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.


Let’s design for complexity, adaptability, and humanity.


Let’s build systems that enable Better Value Sooner Safer Happier because people are not machines.  And we were never meant to be.





Interested in attending the next Beyond the Blueprint Industrial Revolution Tour? - let us know here Other articles you may be interested in:


Footnotes:


When we say “the first time human labour was treated as a repeatable input rather than a creative force”, we’re talking about a major mindset shift that happened during the First Industrial Revolution, particularly in places like Cromford and Belper.

Before industrialisation, most work was artisanal, agricultural, or craft-based. Whether it was farming, carpentry, weaving, or stone masonry, paid labour was valued for its skill, judgment, and creativity. The worker owned the process from start to finish; they chose how to approach the task, solved problems on the fly, and took pride in the unique quality of their output. The human was central to the work’s success. Factory production flipped that on its head.


References Cromford Mills Guided Tour - https://www.cromfordmills.org.uk/

 
 
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