The Fourth Revolution Blog

Because management is scared.

Because time spent on social networks is not immediately productive. Where is the tangible output?

Because reinforcing the informal organization dis-empowers the formal hierarchy.

Because management feels it looses control.

Because if we allow employees to write what they want, they might sabotage the organization.

Only a few organizations will understand that the value of leaving employees express their creativity is the key to success in the Collaborative Age.
These organizations will dwarf all others.

Because these organizations will have had their hierarchy and bureaucracy sabotaged.

When do you let aside this illusion of control, and create an internal social network in your organization?

In the Industrial Age, organization management is all about control of the information.

Communication means are scarce, the hierarchical organization is the best way to coordinate the organization by minimizing communication channels. Sitting at the top of his pyramid, the manager is the only one that has access to all the available information. His legitimacy is information control. His main skill is information processing. His tool is the scarce long distance telephone, the telex, the telegram.

Today long distance communication is abundant. It does not require any more a dedicated infrastructure. Organizations do not need any more to organize around scarce information transmission. Hierarchy is obsolete. Network, matrix, fluid organization is of the essence.

Information is everywhere, scattered. Controlling the information, restricting access to it is a hindrance. It destroys opportunities for value creation.

What is then the legitimacy of the manager in the Collaborative Age? Instead of controlling and restricting information, he or she makes it more free and accessible. The manager gives access to resources, iinformation. The manager creates connections, interaction and links.

When will managers stop believing their legitimacy is information control and processing? When will they focus exclusively on creating value through interactions? When will they free information?

In the Industrial Age, management was controlling everything. Efficiency was about minimizing movement, focusing on work. The work was divided in small chunks. Productivity was key.

Management was controlling everything to make sure nobody wasted time. No initiative was tolerated. It would have disturbed the order of things so well engineered by much more knowledgeable managers.

This approach was great. In a world of scarcity, commodities were appreciated when one could get it. This method has produced great improvements in productivity, cheap products and as a result a much better lifestyle on average.

Today the world is one of abundance. We don’t care so much about commodities. We want choice. We want creative products. We want something different.

Never mind the grandiose plans of the managers. The organization won’t produce that without the bottom-up initiatives of all it’s members.

Unleashing the initiative has a difficult side. Managers are not any more controlling everything. They do not decide any more which product will work, which product will not.

Today many managers still want to believe they are entirely in control. But they are not. It is an illusion. In these conditions, taking an initiative in an organization is difficult. It needs persistence. It often fails because managers fear losing control. Value that could have been created is lost.

Managers need to keep true the purpose and the values of the organization. But they are not any more in control of the details of it’s destiny.

When will managers and senior executives stop believing they are in control, and when will they voluntarily unleash the initiative of the organization?