Occasionally, I come across a perspective that gets me to thinking
along alternate lines of perception. When I do, I try to pass them along.
If you also enjoy this kind of thinking, you might want to drop
Steve Finegan <
steve@HUNT.COM>
a line.
______________________
Great Optimism,
Dutch Driver
Abilene, TX
Hm. Telephone: 915.698.7217
mailto:
ddriver@cs1.mcm.edu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 15:02:04 -0800
From: Steve Finegan <
steve@HUNT.COM>
Subject: Zero-G Management
Amorphous Agility: The Art of Zero-G Management
In Orson Scott Card's classic sci-fi novel "Ender's Game" the main
character is a boy genius named Ender Wiggin. The main action in the story
takes place in a zero-gravity (zero-g) chamber called the Battleroom. In
this futuristic gladiatorial arena, "armies" of student-soldiers, encased
in special suits (they temporarily freeze when hit by enemy fire), run
realistic battle simulations flashing mock laser weapons. Each army's
objective is to fight its way to the enemy's hatch and seize it. Stepping
into the chamber for his first engagement, Ender immediately plays with
different orientational perspectives: the enemy army's hatch is up, now
it's down, now it's on the wall. After deciding which orientation makes the
most tactical sense -- that the hatch is down -- he points his toes toward
it, exposing only the soles of his feet to enemy fire. From this position,
he manages to shoot several of the "upright" boys on the opposing side
before anyone can freeze his hands or upper body. Later, well on his way
to overall command of his Battle School, Ender "falls" vertically toward
the enemy hatch on the floor (his worldview), feet first, legs tucked,
weapon pointed down between his legs, freezing the astonished enemy
troopers as they enter the horizontal room from the wall (their worldview),
bodies fully exposed. Ender plays the game as if he is falling down a
shaft; his enemies play as if they are literally floating above a level
playing field. The lesson is clear: in zero-g one's worldview is whatever
one wants it to be.
Our most cherished concepts -- such as up and down, right and left, top and
bottom, over and under, etc., etc. -- are the offspring of human evolution.
They are only tools to help the earthbound get along in this world. A human
operating in zero-g can use up, down and sideways in more flexible ways
than his gravity-bound counterpart, reorienting himself with surprising
alacrity and flexibility to new situations and exigencies, just as Ender
did during his battle drill. But there's a downside to zero-g; it can be
profoundly disorienting and disconcerting not to know which way is up or
down. The hatch that was on the wall now might be on the ceiling. The
stomach turns and the hands grow clammy.
Many well-qualified, talented and highly skilled leaders and managers,
operating in our increasingly complex post-modern culture, can relate to
this sense of lost confidence in one's place in the universe.
Metaphorically speaking, they are tumbling in the zero-g of accelerated
change and complexity. Despite their freedom to choose among a number of
new models of reality, they desperately cling to the old and the familiar:
"Tell me, I've got to know, which way is up; which down!" In a zero-g
environment, it's best to let go of the old and familiar notions of one
fixed orientation and adopt an open mind, always casting about for the
orientation that gives one a competitive advantage in a given environment
and situation.
In today's rapidly changing and increasingly complex organizational
environment, many leaders are choosing to adopt the following new
orientation: Not only do they wholeheartedly embrace new communications
technologies which have the potential to undermine existing organizational
structures, but they aggressively re-orient their organizations to reflect
the new highly decentralized, nonlinear and "webby" model imposed by this
new technology. Perhaps they drop the old vertical hierarchical model in
favor of a network model that is a better fit with the new technology. Such
an organization might look and behave something like this:
* In place of a hierarchy there is a "geodesic," where individuals
connect directly with each other instead of relying solely on a management
infrastructure.
* What was a static top-down chain of command is now a dynamic
multilinear and multisequential network, fostering collaborations on both a
large and small scale.
* The process of making network-mediated connections between people
and ideas has been speeded up. This reduces and, in many cases, eliminates
the time and space constraints for making decisions and getting things
done.
* Management's role is to evangelize everyone, connect people within
the network, and adapt quickly vs managing the flow of decisions and work
within a chain of command structure.
* Ownership is spread throughout the network, since every user and
information node is potentially the command center of the network.
* Management willingly accepts a reduction of executive authority and
centralization in favor of massive decentralization (every node is a center
like galaxies in an expanding universe).
* Management willingly tears down closed physical and symbolical
walls in favor of shared spaces, processes and relationships within the
entire network.
* Everyone in the organization (not to mention its primary
stakeholders) benefits from increased participation in knowledge sharing,
making decisions and taking transformative action.
And so on.
The key to managing in zero-g is to be adaptable and flexible enough to
orient and re-orient yourself and your organization to new technologies and
new organization configurations, rapidly making adjustments based on the
situations and demands of your organization and the broader environment.
--------
For the past six months or so I've been researching and outlining a white
paper (book?) that deals with the subject of how narratives are used in
organizations to organize the lives, work, interactions and productions of
people (April post). The project is finally starting to take shape. In the
process, I came up with this zero-g metaphor which has just kept nagging
and nagging at me. It really hasn't been that relevant to my project, but I
keep coming back to it. I'd love to use the theme: "re-orienting in zero-g"
in my upcoming paper if I can find a way to integrate it; perhaps I will.
Anyway I offer the above (which I cut down considerably to save bandwidth)
as food for thought. Perhaps if I make an offering to you and it proves to
be of some value, my muse will be propitiated; I may then be allowed to
proceed with my work, both feet planted firmly on the ground.
Steve
Steve G. Finegan, President, The Huntington Group, Inc.
E-mail:
steve@hunt.com
PO Box 340, Lake Oswego, OR 97034. Phone: 503-635-9182. FAX: 503-635-9869