Dead Paradigms in Organizations
by Jevon MacDonald
This is the suit and tie wearing brother-in-law of Dead Paradigms in Software, and the killing spree continues.
What is a Dead Paradigm? It’s an old idea that we just can’t shake, but that has long ago lost it’s usefulness. These are things that we all take for granted and we assume are here to stay, but the reality is that they are the culprit causing the stink in the hallway. The rotting vessel of ideologies that were developed when the constraints of building software, growing an organization or creating art were far more restrictive.
What vestiges of the old world are still floating around in the modern world? Why do we find the corpse of old kings hanging in the broom closet on the 50th floor of a modern multinational?
Here are just a couple, more later
Customer Service
Customer Service is no longer a closed loop. A new organizational model is it’s replacement, that opens dialogue with the customer, not simply directed at the customer.
Reporting Hirearchy
In his earlier post, Rob introduced the Donut as an organizational model.
I think that it means that we can now see how to operate the new organizational model. The new model is not a mechanical model that has friction and demands effort. It does not have to control every move and component. It is “Energetic”. If the centre and the inner circle are dense enough and in tune enough - the resulting energy will fill the system. My bet is that such an insight is behind the new reality of the 1% Rule for Networks such as for Wikipedia.
If we are correct - all of the current organizational theory can be thrown out the window. The current theory is like the old Ptolemaic (put the Earth in the centre) system.
The org chart is dead. The worlds most effective organizations, legal and not, are operating almost completely without strong organizational structure. New technologies have been the primary enabler of these networks, and organizations must flatten.
