I came to Prince Edward Island, population 140,000 in 1995 in the hope that I could find the answer ofr a society. How could a tiny state, half the size of Iceland, be a player in the world economy?

I was very lucky to find as a client a man who had the same dream and Rory and I have worked with each other – been friends, shared the ups and downs of life ever since. 12 years ago, he was the deputy minister for Agriculture. He could see that a tiny place like PEI could not hope to compete as a commodity producer in the big box world of food of our time.

One of the mad ideas that we had, was to see if there was a way that we could use our then disparate ag research community as a base to build a global capability in looking inside plants fish and animals. Could we use our knowledge rather than our land mass?

As a new comer, I had noticed that PEI had a number of labs looking into, food,  plant health, fish health, animal health – all run separately by 2 levels of government and by the university. All on their own were small and had a real struggle to get resources. All competed with each other for scarce research money. On their own, they were never going to amount to anything and in the end they would destroy each other.

We also noticed that they all were within a block of each other.

Could we form some kind of network? Could we find a mission for the network? Could we be a Chaord?

Calling this “The Belvedere Group” – the road that connects them all is called Belvedere – we got all together and had many many meetings. All thought this a great idea. It even made it into the Throne Speech – but in the end we failed. We could not get it to work.

It took several years to work out why we failed. Why when all could se the value, when all said they wanted it – why did we fail?

We failed because we missed a key part of the design of a Chaord. The organizing organization cannot be a player. The Bank of America could not have been the manager of the Visa Chaord. Visa was. Visa was a neutral body whose only role was thesupport the larger whole.

Rory’s job back then was Deputy Minister for Agriculture. He was a player. In the end the Feds, the private sector and the university could not allow another player to be in charge. It would not matter who it was – if UPEI had been in the centre, all the rest would have balked too.

Years later, we put the idea back on the table. This time Rory was an independent. This time we set up a distinct organization – The PEI BioAlliance Inc. – staff of 3 – to act as the Visa for the group. Here is the how it all looks:

Here you have the classic Natural Organization

The dense inner circle are the power partners. In this case two levels of government – the funders – nearly 30 (now) private companies, two education bodies – the outer layer of suppliers and other folks – like me! is all included.

Inc.’s job is to make all these connections work even better. Each part remains individual but is part of the whole. So a lab seeking a grant can base their position in the context of a richer environment. The Federal and Provincial Government can be at the table right from the beginning as talk bout resources begin. The barriers of understanding between the money and the labs have been reduced. The private sector has direct connections to the research and vice versa.

Common needs like how do we attract talent to a small place are dealt with on behalf of all. Here is the key story in this challenge that many small places also face. A common brand like Visa is has been built  and is being sustained.

So what are the results?

This trend continues. We could never have got the resources that we can get today if we had not found a way to act together.

So why should you care about this story?

So long as radio and TV stations see each other as being separate, they will shrink. They do not have to give up their identity to be part of something bigger.

So long as farmers see themselves as separate, they will be serfs.

So long as each division sees itself as being separate, the larger organization will die.

This is Enterprise 2.0

In my next post I will go a bit deeper and share more details of the model and how to get there?

This was the fate of Easter Islanders. As resources became ever more scarce, civil wars became pandemic. As resources became more scarce, the more they were squandered on grandiose projects to propitiate the Gods. Until all the wood was used for making and moving statues – so that there was none left to make boats and hence be able to fish.

That is where many organizations are going today as the economy tightens. It is where nations are going too.

Divisions fight each other inside organizations. People fight each other inside of departments. Institutions spend what they have on projects that look good but don’t help. The need for control at all costs goes up. The real work doesn’t get done. The future is jeopardized.

Is there a better way of getting more for less? Yes there is and it is more than a model. It is out there and it works.

Of course being revolutionary, few saw it for what it was and almost no one except a handful have copied it in spite of it being so successful.

You use it every day and never think about it.

More than 30 years ago, the new credit card industry was in chaos and a man called Dee Hock was asked by the Chairman of Bank of America to make work.

His huge idea was the Chaord. A system connected by a set of DNA or Principles rather than directed from the centre. A system with a small group in the centre who job was to work on behalf of all members to grow the value of the larger system. Bach who used the Chaord in his music described this process as:

“Not the autocracy of a single stubborn melody on the one hand.  Nor the anarchy of unchecked noise on the other. No, a delicate balance between the two; an enlightened freedom.”

For the big problem was that each bank wanted to have  global card system of its own – the control thing. What Hock could see that was that there was not enough money in the world to do that. But if all banks could become members of a system – the system could act as the connector. In this way the network effect could help all. Point of sale terminals added by one bank would serve all. ATM’s added by one bank could serve all.

He could also see that such a system need not impinge on the unique identity of each member. They could keep their own brand and their own IT systems. All they had to do was to meet a small number of performance standards and use a co brand in common.

The staff at Visa International, until the IPO, worked for a non profit! Their role was the support the interests of all the members.

So in practice, each member got more for less and all the actions of each members added resources to the whole.

Dee Hock’s great dream was that this well proven model would become the norm for all organizations. His tragedy is that it remains largely unknown, not understood and not adopted.

Until recently. On PEI we have been deliberately using this idea to build a new Bio Science capability. Like the banks starting Visa, there were many competing groups, labs, companies etc that all saw the other as the competitor. All were small and could not get to critical mass on their own.

In the last 10 years we have found a way to use the Visa model and the results are in.

In my next post I would like to tell you what happened so that you can see how you too might use this model.

Here is a pdf that will tell you Dee Hock’s story in his own words. The forgotten gospel!

dee-hock-the-chaordic-organization