> Now, what if we tried to build a relational organization? What if our
> structure was based not on "who's in the management box" but rather on
> "what is the necessary relationships needed" to make the enterprise work?
> What would the essential relationships be?
Michael, I've been working on the relational model of organizations since
1991. More and more managers are starting to ask these same questions --
I no longer get blank stares when I explain this approach.
One of the things that I have discovered is that you cannot 'build' a
relational organization the same way you build a formal hierarchy. IMHO,
it is best to 'discover' where relationships are already emerging and then
support that -- most my experience here is with knowledge workers, not
production line(office or factory) employees. You canNOT build or mandate
relationships, you CAN encourage, suggest, provide the conditions for them
to emerge and grow. It's like my garden... I water, weed and fertilize my
tomato plants and then 'trust' that they will grow OK. I provide the
conditions, rewards for self-organization, emergence, etc. and then I
stand back. The same is true for relationships and emergent communities
in organizations. Set up the right conditions and rewards and allow the
employees to interact with their environment[which includes other
employees, customers, suppliers, competitors, regulators, etc.]. If the
employees know their mission, are allowed to interact with their
environment and adapt to it, they will establish the right
connections/relationships they need to get their job done. Informal
leaders [who may not have hierarchical power] will also emerge. IMHO,
emergent leaders are a necessary condition for emergent communities to
reach their goals.
Michael, your Mac example rings true of emergent self-organization in
response to environmental changes. When I was at TRW in the mid 80s, we
self-organized a Mac community, before the Mac was sanctioned. It was a
very effective community with much learning and quick diffusion of
knowledge. IMHO, that emergent community was key to TRW adopting the Mac
as a key platform. I even remained a member of that community when I
moved over to Toyota [why should I change my emergent relationships just
because my formal relationships change?].
I have an example of discovering emergent communities within an
organization on my web site:
http://www.netcom.com/~valdisk
Follow the _Walk-through_ link on the web site to see how a department
self-organizes when released from the grips of an overbearing, controlling
manager[real data from an early client of mine]. Although hierarchical
power allows managers[who choose to] to somewhat control 'local'
conditions, 'global' conditions are impossible to control. Follow the
_Watch_ link on the web site and try to control the "Self-Organizing
Internet Industry". Try putting Microsoft right next to Netscape. What
happens? The connections/relationships resist external control and find
their own emergent structure. Meg Wheatley is right, we cannot really
control an emerging web of relationships. The last question on that web
page is a tease for control freaks ;-)
Valdis Krebs
inflow@concentric.net
http://www.netcom.com/~valdisk
--Valdis Krebs <inflow@concentric.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>