Anarchy Works
Andrew says:
My team is always hoping I'll drop the A word. One wrote: "I think most people—especially people who are not visionaries or philosophers or even interested—see anarchy as an inflammatory word, and we could make the same points far more effectively using conventional business language." Hard to argue with that.
But I'm sticking to it. Here's why: I think of anarchy as individual self-responsibility, practiced in a way that respects others' individual self-responsibility.
Janine Benyus talks of geese flying in the V formation. The lead goose works 70% harder than all the others (who benefit from aerodynamic synergies). But the lead shifts all the time, each individual stepping up to the front periodically, while the current leader graciously concedes.
That's anarchy. Do your best, and let others do their best. It works for geese—giving them a 40% productivity boost—and it works for project teams. And to the best of our abilities, it's embedded in All-In.
Great businesses start with a passion for delivering customer value combined with a vision for strong sustainable growth. But there is a dichotomy in this: Success and growth often come at the cost of shared vision and entrepreneurial spirit. Distances and workloads shoot up; team members become separated from each other, and from the essence of what the organization was originally founded to achieve.
Information technology makes this worse, by segmenting workers into specialized applications, and information into silos.
Your People — Then and Now
When general business software was being invented, the target customer was a corporation run by Organization Man. He was a top-down, command and control, knowledge hoarding, works for a boss, driven by procedures type of guy, with an in box and out box.
Organization Man lives on in the software we use every day — but not in our best companies.
Today, Network Person populates our most successful organizations. He is anarchic, self-responsible, and knowledge sharing. He works for a project, and makes decisions frequently, based on shared knowledge and culture. He's not too fond of his in box/out box software.
| Hierarchic - command and control. |
Anarchic - self-responsibility. |
| Works for a boss. |
Works for a project. |
| Work is private and exclusive. |
Work is shared and inclusive. |
| Driven by procedures. |
Driven by deadlines. |
| Wants ownership. |
Wants use. |
| Knowledge is power: shares knowledge as little as possible. |
Contacts create strength: shares knowledge as freely as possible. |
| Avoids decisions; seeks cover under hierarchy, bureaucracy and convention. |
Takes decisions frequently, guided by knowledge bases, community practices and a quick, collaborative culture. |
| 1-way messages convey an order. |
2-way messages encapsulate a contract. |
Your Job — Now
Network person works fast and generates networks of projects and contacts, thus revenue. You need:
- To attract and retain Network Person.
- To deliver the creative anarchy on which Network Person thrives.
- To avoid failed IT and cultural integrations that frustrate Network Person, causing growth by acquisition failure.
- To avoid old-software-induced explosions of peripheral tasks that overburden Network Person, causing organic growth failure.
Anarchic Harmony
iLiv is dedicated to the proposition that your software must function as a utility supporting anarchy. The new organization is a group of individuals taking individual self-responsibility for a common mission. There are no hierarchies, only shared systems, processes, and objectives.
New software must reflect this new reality — providing services to networked persons, interacting on a shared planet.
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