Social networks disrupt hierarchical structures. Web-based social networks accelerate the spread of new ideas and lay bare organizational flaws. Anyone in a position of power and authority is losing some of that due to the growing power of social networks – doctors, teachers, managers, politicians. Social networks speed access to knowledge and accelerate learning. They allow people to quickly make and change connections. Seb Paquet calls this “ridiculously easy group-forming”.
Work
business & working
Site Redesign
If this site is popular, it is because of the content, not the design. I have not put much effort into the design and visual art is definitely not one of my skills. For the most part I have just used templates or very simple layouts. Here are some of the iterations through time.
Retrieving cooperation
According to Dion Hinchcliffe, we need to rethink work and reinvent collaboration.
At a high level, there appear to be three major root causes for why collaboration — the very core of how people come together and function as a business — is in the midst of reinvention:
1. Hierarchical management styles break down in the face of the inherent complexity and scale of the modern business environment.
2. New digital tools have put us in constant and direct contact with nearly every person in the developed world at virtually no cost or effort …
3. There has been a sustained shift in the power of creation, as the edges of our organizations and marketplaces now have readily in hand as much — and often more — productive power and reach than our institutions …
At the highest level, we are changing the way we organize as a society. This has only happened twice before. The emerging form (networks) is not a mere modifier of previous forms (Tribes, Institutions & Markets), but a form in itself that may be able to address complex societal issues that the previous forms cannot. This is why changing how we work seems critical to so many people today.
Industrial disease
some blame the management, some the employees;
and everybody knows it’s the Industrial Disease —Dire Straits
Complexity is the new normal
We are so interconnected today that many cannot imagine otherwise. Almost every person is connected to worldwide communication networks. News travels at the speed of a Tweet. Meanwhile, inside the enterprise, reaction times and feedback loops have to get faster to deal with markets that can create multi-billion dollar valuations seemingly overnight. But are they getting faster?
In a wired world, companies have to re-wire
Wirearchies are smarter than the sum of their parts. But what are the parts? One way to look at wirearchy is as four interrelated levels:
- Coordination of routine & standardized work
- The daily practice of getting work done
- The continuous development of expertise
- Connecting to others with complementary interests
All levels are necessary and knowledge has to flow between them, or companies will get disconnected from their markets and their people. This is why trust is so important, and the sharing of power and authority is the visible evidence of trust.
Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations. —The Cluetrain Manifesto
In a wired world, companies have to re-wire. The gap between markets and companies can only be addressed by two-way conversations between real people. Companies need to foster not only internal communities of practice but external communities of expertise. Only people can enable knowledge, trust and credibility to flow within and between markets and companies. Business in a wired world is first interconnected people, and then technology. Wirearchy puts people first.
Download PDF: wirearchy in 4 parts
Management in perpetual Beta
“Our research indicates that, contrary to what one might assume, good analysis in the hands of managers who have good judgment won’t naturally yield good decisions.” — What Matters More in Decisions
Is it because they are assuming the problem is complicated …
Complicated, in which the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application of expert knowledge, the approach is to Sense – Analyze – Respond and we can apply good practice.
… when in fact it is complex?
Complex, in which the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance, the approach is to Probe – Sense – Respond and we can sense emergent practice.
Our linear management models are based on people developing skills and expertise and over time moving up the organizational or disciplinary hierarchy. The higher up one goes, the greater the qualifications, and the better the compensation. These people are our experts.
One of the things that makes experts so convincing is that they exude confidence. They can talk calmly and knowledgeably about a subject, make reference to relevant facts and build a compelling logic for their case. A good expert is always impressive, but still usually wrong.
In fact, in a twenty year study of political experts, Philip Tetlock found that their predictions were no better than flipping a coin. Further, he found that pundits who specialized in a particular field tended to perform worse than those whose knowledge was more general. —Why experts always seem to get it wrong
Most expertise looks backwards. Experts develop case studies from their experience, and then best practices through reflection on these experiences. In a linear world, this is good. For complicated problems, reliance on experts usually works.
In a complex world, experts may inform our decisions but we should not rely on them. We need to try things out in context. Lots of things, lots of times, and with little fanfare. This is management in perpetual Beta. It means thinking for ourselves and developing our own expertise for our constantly changing environments. Getting current managers to understand and accept this is one of our major organizational challenges.
Wirearchies are smarter than the sum of their parts
Many parts of knowledge work have been routinized and standardized with the ongoing marriages of business processes and integrated enterprise information systems. What has not changed much yet is the adaptation of structures and culture to permit easily building flows of information into pertinent, useful and just-in-time knowledge, or fanning out problem-solving and accountability into networks of connected workers. —Jon Husband
Chee Chin Liew’s 2010 slide presentation on moving from hierarchies to teams at BASF shows how IT Services used their technology platforms to enhance networking, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration. The slide on the character of communities (#14) shows one approach to “building flows of information into pertinent, useful and just-in-time knowledge”.
Adapting these ideas to a model that promotes a “dynamic two-way flow of power of authority enabled by interconnected people and technology” shows how knowledge can flow in order to foster trust and credibility. Creating this two-way flow of dialogue, practice, expertise, and interest, can be the foundation of a wirearchy.
[Note: I might rename Dialogue to Coordination in a future version.]
Work in the network era needs to be cooperative and collaborative, and organizations have to support both. This may not be an easy transition for companies based solely on unified leadership. Collaboration is not the same as cooperation. Collaboration means working together, with an objective, and usually for a boss. This can work well when the objective is clear and the conditions do not change. Cooperation means sharing and helping others without expectations of direct reciprocation. Cooperation helps to strengthen networks, without central managerial interference. In times of rapid change, and decreasing lifespans of companies, cooperation trumps collaboration.
In complex environments, weak hierarchies and strong networks are the best organizing principle. While many companies today have strong networks, they are too often coupled with strong central control. Becoming a wirearchy requires new organizational structures that incorporate communities, networks, and cooperative behaviours. It means giving up control. The job of those in leaderships roles is to help the network make better decisions.
As markets get more complex in the network era, most business value is created through innovation, not process improvement. Innovative ideas come through loose social ties and diverse opinions. Companies therefore need to push work beyond the practice layer and out to communities and networks. Openness improves task coordination, so that all problems can be seen. Transparency can improve collaboration to get tasks done better. In such a work environment, trust emerges. With openness and transparency in place, cooperation with more diverse knowledge networks can then lead to real business value. Hierarchies are merely simple control networks, while wirearchies are complex human networks.
Let me once again put forth my Principles of Management for the Network Era: It is only through innovative and contextual methods, the self-selection of the most appropriate tools and work conditions, and willing cooperation that more productive work can be assured. The duty of being transparent in our work and sharing our knowledge rests with all workers, as well as management.
We need to undo our dominant business models which are the legacy of military hierarchies because they are inefficient, ineffective, and stifle innovation. Hierarchies are only as good as the smartest gatekeeper. Wirearchies are smarter than the sum of their parts.
Changing the world of work
Change Agents Worldwide has just released its first ebook featuring 21 views on the future of work. I have captured some of the highlights and set them in a flow to tell a part of the story, but you will want to read them all. Most formats are free of charge, and don’t forget to check out the last page.
We believe change is coming fast to the enterprise. We believe in the principles that drive the evolving Web: chief among these are transparency, sharing/collaboration, authenticity, and trust. —@chagww
The World of Work
The typical situation in which many businesses are stuck – taming emergent bottom-up behaviors external to organizations, while trying to give rise internally to similar emergence through top-down programs. —Thierry de Baillon
As I walk the halls of too many businesses, I see zombies. They were once new employees, alive, full of excitement and vitality; they were one part optimism, one part tenacity with at least a sprinkle of ingeniousness. Now those characteristics have all but vanished. Reluctantly, they have become cogs in the machine. —Kevin Jones
The last decade has been all about the social business buzz with organizations introducing new technologies with old-world thinking. —Ayelet Baron
How to Ensure the Failure of Your Change Initiative: Engage with your legal team and allow them to make the policies for use of the new capability as restrictive as possible. —Bruce Galinsky
Generation Y: So when I make the realization that I am a shiny new cog in an old, rusty machine, you, my manager, must act quickly to help keep me engaged, productive, and happy. —Carrie Basham Young
Re-thinking Work
The possibilities for what your organization can become when you no longer think of employees as cogs in a wheel are extraordinary. —Rob Caldera
In a knowledge economy, it’s the talent and knowledge of people, and the results of their productive interactions that create value — solving complex problems, inventing new solutions, engaging with customers. —Catherine Shinners
The collapse of workplace certainty requires us to – forge new partnerships; subvert hierarchies; connect & reconnect; add our special value. —Jonathan Anthony.
Rethinking how we pay people for an era defined by networked collaboration represents an important element in the quest for ongoing improvements in performance. —Jon Husband
Sharing complex knowledge in trusted networks requires a combination of actively engaged knowledge workers, using optimal communications tools, all within a supportive organizational structure. —Harold Jarche
The best outcomes come from creating an environment where individuals can think and learn together. —Clark Quinn
In your job, whenever you have to design a project or achieve a task that supports the classical Top-Down frame, think about doing it a different way. —Céline Schillinger
An important consideration is not always focusing on “What’s in it for me right now?” but on shifting our thinking to “What will best balance satisfying immediate needs, yet still nourish future opportunity in the process?” —Bryce Williams
Setting out to “change the world of work” is an ambitious goal. It takes a raw courage to challenge the status quo, to tear down the psychological walls that have built our understanding of “work” as we know it in the 21st century. —Susan Scrupski
Changing the World of Work
The world needs each of us to hear the call in the distance and move. The people making a difference are leaping one step at a time. —Marcia Conner
Deciding to trust your own choices of talented people is the first step to the future of work. —Simon Terry
If you believe change is needed but don’t know where to start, consider a very simple approach: revisit the annual objectives. Make 50 percent of the bonus count for engagement and exploration of better ways of working. —Danny DeGrave
A good Change Agent will use his network to reach out way beyond his company — and even his industry — to find the most forward- thinking people, study their way of working, and then apply that new knowledge to his own enterprise. —Jim Worth
Forget about job titles and job descriptions. They are constraints. Tear your eyes away from the rear-view mirror and have a good long look through the windshield. —Richard Martin
Storytelling is more powerful than official, crafted messages. “Look what they did” means more than “Our strategy is to do this.” —Jane McConnell
Be ready to start a journey. Nobody will guarantee you that this journey will be successful. But to quote philosopher Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: “I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.” —Rainer Gimbel
Postscript
We don’t know exactly how it happened. Our chroniclers believe it started around 2020, when networks became an invisible fabric of society. Everyone and everything was connected to everyone and everything else. —Joachim Stroh
Flip the office
Have you ever heard of a ‘flipped classroom’?
Flip teaching (or flipped classroom) is a form of blended learning in which students learn new content online by watching video lectures, usually at home, and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is now done in class with teachers offering more personalized guidance and interaction with students, instead of lecturing. —Wikipedia
Flipped teaching appears to be a good approach that engages teachers with their students, instead of just delivering content, which technology can do fairly well now.
In a recent conversation with my Internet Time Alliance colleagues, we were talking about how much time is wasted in commuting to work, which none of us do. Charles Jennings told us about his days of leaving for work at 06:30 every morning and usually returning around 20:30. A grinding routine, which I am sure many readers share. We also agreed that an open office workplace is often a place with too much noise to get any work done. It was noted that in some offices, employees booked meeting rooms for themselves in order to work in peace. Perhaps it’s time to flip the office, I suggested.
7 guidelines for managing open networks
Ed Morrison, Advisor for the Purdue Center for Regional Development, says that many of the familiar approaches to management no longer apply, and goes on to provide 7 keys to guiding an open network. I have added my images that support this excellent set of rules.
Click on each image for a link to the supporting article.
Rule 1: Form a core team with distributed leadership roles
Rule 2: To accelerate, go slowly at first [AKA: Probe-Sense-Respond]
Rule 3: Find opportunities by linking and leveraging assets
Rule 4: Create coherence with visualizations and outcomes with success metrics
Rule 5: Adopt simple rules to design and implement strategy
Rule 6: Promote transparency, mutual accountability and success metrics
Rule 7: Embrace action and experimentation
