DAYTIME - day job or destiny?: April 2009

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The curse of the command structure

This concept is the reason for this blog.

The basic insight I want people to look at and discuss is that all large organisations are built around a pyramid shaped power or command structure, but command structures are NOT communication networks. Discuss? Hey, prove it wrong if you can!

"Hierarchy of authority" is a more fluffy way of saying command structure. This means that each person in the organisation officially reports to just one direct superior but that each person above the very base level may have one or more people who report to him or her. This is true of armies, monasteries, government agencies, commercial and industrial firms and corporations, and educational institutions. "Old news" you might say, but "hierarchy of authority" misses the deep problem.

The deep problem is that communication - I mean real communication - is a two-way process, and bureaucratic command structures do NOT function well, if at all, as channels for the two way, equal to equal, interchange which is essential for real communication to occur.

A command structure is NOT a communication network.

Command structures have been around since warriors started making themselves into kings. There are many issues, and opinions can be discussed about all that.

Politely expressed thoughts and opinions on the subject are welcome here.

My main concern here is that we now live in the modern era, a new time in human history, indeed a radically new stage in human evolution. My contention is that command structures have always provided mixed blessings. The stability and security made possible by the imposition of laws and ideology of a ruling class has allowed many societies to develop in complexity and influence; "civilisation" was possible but at considerable cost.

Command structures accrue greatest benefits to those giving the commands. Throughout history command structures have served primarily as systems of control with surplus value being channelled up the hierarchies while costs associated with the creation of value were pushed down the hierarchies and out into the rest of the society and the ecology.

This, broadly speaking, has been the way of things since the advent of agriculture and the complex, class societies which it supported. For reasons which we can discuss - if anyone dares - class societies are intrinsically unstable in the long term unless they have entrenched democratic institutions and behaviours. They always succumb to civil strife and insurrection or else warfare perpetrated on neighbours and victims further afield.

The advent of scientific method is what has created the modern era. The application of scientific method and the fruits of its discoveries have put enormous power into the hands of modern people - into the hands of the "haves" anyway. This incredible transformation has only just begun really, we ain't seen nothing yet!

One of the biggest consequences of this change is that most of our old ways of doing things have to be adjusted to deal with the new kinds of situations we can find ourselves in. This can be simple and obvious but heartbreakingly traumatic for many. One example is that everybody in the world now has to use money for at least some of the important tasks of life, and most of us have to use money for nearly everything. The negative side of this is that most of us cannot decree what money is so we are constrained by the dictates of bankers, economists, entrepreneurs and politicians who often have very archaic and outmoded ideas about truth and value.

I think the economic disaster which became manifest through 2008,, and has continued so far through 2009 is clear evidence that capitalist gurus and pundits are nearly as blind and wilfully dysfunctional as the socialists they so often jeer at. A PLAGUE ON ALL THEIR HOUSES!! that's what I say!.

I believe that, if we want our species to survive, there are four fundamental ingredients necessary for sustaining civilisation in the modern era:
Compassion
Democracy
Ethics
Scientific method.

The pleasant side to this realisation is that none of this is "rocket science". When you start looking quite closely into many of the things that have been discovered about human beings, the natural environment, and about things we can make, it turns out that there is vast potential to improve the lives of everybody on the planet and have enormous fun in the process!

DAYTIME - day job or destiny?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The curse of the command structure

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A command structure is NOT a communication network.

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