Thanks for this Harold,

I know that @hjarche is a friend of @Jonhusband who is the chap who came up with the expression Wirerarchy in 1999. A term used to conjure up what happens after hierarchies.

Command and control (what happens what you implement hierarchy) is being increasingly understood for what it is. What it says on the packet. This management technique is essential however in the industrial economy when divide and conquer and mass production (model-T-Ford) are the order of the day. When your problem suits it.

It’s not surprising that command and control has become so pervasive and the cornerstone for how we organize our business and societies (Nation States being no exception). Primarily due to the unintended consequences of of the economics of free markets. One such example had (until a few years ago) had been that the transaction cost of purchasing a capability far exceeded the cost of having your own in-house department to perform the task. At scale. Now all of that is turning on its head - for the past 10 years, at least. The cost/quality of in-house production rarely beats external options. What’s scarce is trust. How to scale trust.

Command and control is creating many problems in our societies and businesses. Not least challenging the very existence and sustainability of them. However they are not obsolete and a world without them (many of them anyway!) would be a far worse reality than the (sometimes) positive mediating effect that they produce. Institutions must adapt or die, for sure.

There’s an organisation called Worldblu that is a membership club for democratic workplaces.

http://www.worldblu.com/awardee-profiles/2012.php

My organization (Ethos) is trying to organise and work without traditional command and control hierarchies but it is not easy. There are no easy answers. Clay Shirky rather quaintly points to Github as having some hope of cooperation without coordination. But we are still early days. My ten cents!