Prototype Chapters 1 and 2 of the Book I Will Probably Never Write ;-)

… from sometime in 2002.

By prototypical I mean that they were just teasers.  Real, meaty chapters with examples and everything were to be developed had I the energy, willpower and backing to engage in trying to write a book

I’m posting this to try to catalyze myself to bring these chapterettes up to date.

I’ll appreciate any feedback as to how they can be made better, more comprehensive, deeper, more accurate … all the things they need to be if they ever become real chapters.

It’s been a while … I was captivated by the issues four or five years ago, and so spent a lot more time writing and editing.

Clearly things have moved along since then.  My hard drive tells me that this was written in February 2002.  I think I was just learning about blogs around about then.

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CHAPTER ONE

As hierarchies evolve, “wirearchies” emerge

Wirearchy, posited as an organizing principle for the interconnected, networked Knowledge Age, is aimed at understanding and shaping a new organizational dynamic for the benefit of individuals, organizations and the societies in which we work and live.  It’s giving a name to a new organizing principle that reflects more realistically and accurately what’s going on out there, and we believe that this principle should be used to create work structures and cultures that respond authentically – with speed, flexibility, integration and innovation – to customer needs.

“Wirearchy” – a dynamic flow of power and authority based on connections and conversations – is emerging as a social dynamic in both business and society.  Wirearchy suggests a fundamental change in the dynamics of human interaction in – and with – organizations of all sizes, shapes and purposes.  It is an evolution of hierarchy as an organizing principle and dynamic.

Wirearchy does not render obsolete the need for direction and control; rather, it changes the meaning of those terms and how they are used and experienced. Wirearchy is a structure of governance, strategy, decision-making and control based on trust, meaning and credibility – things get done through connections and conversation. Wirearchy is generated by an open architecture of information, knowledge and focus, enabled by connected and converging technologies.

Work will keep changing faster and become more uncertain, more focused on delivering results.  Work will become an ever-flowing combination of the necessary results delivered by people using their unique combinations of skills, personalities and motivations – the mass customization of work.  This changing nature of work has been brought about by the ongoing penetration and spread of computers and ever-smarter software into virtually all areas of human activity, notably work activities.  Where control of information, knowledge and thus power used to reside in the hierarchical structures built to manage work in the Industrial Age, the changes to work that we are experiencing demand that knowledge, power and control are shared, diffused and distributed.  Thus, the new organizing principle – Wirearchy – is required.

New models and new ways of doing things are clearly necessary – and emerging.  Symptoms of this need are cropping up all around us – from new approaches to leadership and the recognition that issues like Emotional Intelligence and team work are fundamental to effectiveness in any organized, organizational endeavour, to 24/7 work and life, artificial intelligence in the form of chips and software built into almost everything humans do, and global markets and global competitiveness.  The established forms of governance, leadership, management and citizenship are under attack from all sides, and new forms of addressing these critical issues are appearing in the current affairs and business news every day. 

Much has already been written – and more will follow – about networks, partnerships, and strategic alliances.  The average lifespan of newly appointed CEO’s grows shorter and shorter each year, and managers everywhere are searching for tools and techniques that will allow for continued effectiveness in the face of swirling change.

As this unrelenting change, and the spread of interconnected distributed knowledge, continues to grow, the structure and shape of organizations and work also continues to evolve.  More and more work takes shape in time-and-results defined projects, and the presence of teams and teamwork is ubiquitous.  Out–sourcing and contracting, as organizational responses to carrying out critical work and tasks while limiting the impact on the core operational aspects of an organization, are widespread.  The flattening of hierarchies has also been a common response – and yet the legacy mindset and dynamics of hierarchical command-and-control are still dominant – even though at the height of the dot-com boom it seemed that the dynamics of the “geek revolution” might forever replace traditional power structures.

A unifying, organizing principle will help greatly in coalescing meaning and sense out of this swirling morass – and we suggest that defining, exploring and explaining Wirearchy will be an essential first step in moving forward.

CHAPTER TWO

The scope of these new interactions: from business to entertainment

The turbulent volatility of the building of a new infrastructure for communication, interaction and collaboration that has occurred during the past five years speaks clearly to the scope and reach of this issue. We are beginning to notice the appearance of the wirearchical structure and dynamic in most, if not all, of the major areas of human endeavour – business, government, education, entertainment, health care, and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s).

In the business arena, we have entered an era in which the application of information technology, and the embedding of a foundation of pertinent knowledge to many business processes and business models by innovative upstarts and industry/market leaders, has caused significant upheaval.  The evidence is clear – so much so that there has been a seemingly endless current debate about whether or not there is a “new cconomy.”  Prominent thinkers and writers such as Peter Drucker (Beyond the Information Revolution, The Economist’s Next Society) and Alvin and Heidi Toffler (The New Economy? You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet) have outlined provocative and hard-nosed syntheses that state succinctly that we are in the early throes of a profound and unsettling re-writing of the hierarchical power structures that have governed the business arena for the last century.

First world governments everywhere are rushing to put many, if not all, governmental services on-line in ways that will improve the services to citizens and streamline the costs of providing these services.  Following the 2000 U.S. federal election fiasco, on-line voting is sure to make an appearance in subsequent major elections.  Cyber-surveillance will no doubt flourish and expand in the new post-September 11 hyper-vigilance of North America and Europe.

The educational paradigm is being overthrown and turned upside down as on-line learning and eLearning take root in grade schools, high schools, universities, continuing education and corporate universities.  “Learning a living” has become a common mantra as everyone, everywhere realizes that change is so rapid and continuous that it is essential and non-negotiable. In order to have even half-a-chance to progress and prosper, one must engage in continued and continuous learning activities. Technology -and its interconnectedness and smartware - are the enablers that will allow this to happen.

In the entertainment domain, video games, streaming video, pay-per-view, graphic animation that is so realistic that full-length feature movies have only the voices of real actors (everything else is digital animation) are regular releases from the Hollywood machine.  New forms of delivery, such as Napster and a plethora of Web sites promising much greater distribution possibilities for independent artists and creators, are appearing monthly.  All of which means that - the quaking foundations of the existing entertainment industry are real.

The same issues are apparent and real in every form of organized human activity – and this phenomenon will only spread and penetrate deeper as more and more people get connected, as software gets smarter and easier to use, and as younger generations move more fully into organized adult life.  They will demand these capabilities and dynamics simply because they have grown up with them. They understand these capabilities as part of their collective consciousness.

Moving electrons is rapidly becoming the new dominant human activity, and information is the raw material.  Too much money and energy have gone into inventing and developing the infrastructure and the mechanisms for the full-time, real-time, forever-more sharing, trading and swapping of information and interaction.  This will not stop; it will only get faster, more interconnected and more woven into the warp and woof of daily human life.

This issue has been at the heart of what is known as the “New Economy”. Software is being developed to address virtually every aspect of human behavior and expression.  A quick series of surfing trips on the Internet will reveal that there isn’t much left that hasn’t been touched by applying code to basic patterns of behavior and interaction. It seems clear that virtually every area of human endeavour will become codified into some form of software – and the internet will be both the delivery mechanism and the infrastructure that facilitates the interaction.

Most employees use computers and software all day long.  The keyboard and screen have long since replaced paper and pencils as primary working tools.  Communications between people – the swapping of structured and unstructured information and knowledge – is the basic medium of work in the 21^st Century.  When employees are not completing documentation, punching in data, researching, or composing pieces of information into a “chunk” of knowledge, they are talking on phones and in meetings.  That’s what work is for most of us now.

The Internet and its myriad of applications, is rapidly becoming the infrastructure that supports all of this work.  How it gets used, and the dynamics that this generates, will continue to reshape human interaction in profound ways.

The ways people interact while working will come to reflect the fact that so much of the work involves sharing information and knowledge and simultaneously acting. Coupling this with the unassailable fact that due to the Internet the playing field is now  more level, makes it clear that the nature of direction and control will inexorably continue to shift.

The ways people used to interact and get work done involved stability, orderly progression, predictability and incremental improvement.  The people in charge – the top levels of companies, the elected and anointed representatives of authority, the heads of our institutions – gathered and used knowledge and made decisions for others – about what to do, why to do it and how.

The rules of the game are changing.  Notwithstanding tech meltdowns and globally coordinated initiatives against terrorism, the infrastructure and the means for a continually-moving free-flow of information and knowledge are with us, and are beginning to shape more and more the ways we carry out our lives.

Now, its about speed, flexibility, innovation and integration.  If we don’t do it, someone else will.  If we don’t keep doing it better, faster and cheaper, someone else will.  The next innovation, for example, will integrate two capabilities that were previously separate and distinct, and will make it obvious that it makes more sense to do it this new way.

As this keeps happening, we begin to notice that the old ways of doing things had interconnections and patterns of their own, and had come to fit our habits and culture.  We notice that there was comfort in the structures and dynamics with which we were familiar – the roles were clearer, we knew what to expect, and we knew who to credit or blame.

Now, we’re increasingly left to fend for ourselves, and discover the opportunities for triumph and disaster that goes along with a level playing field.  We’re empowered by the software and the Internet: can create whatever we want to and demand information and knowledge. 

No one is setting the rules, and so we find the awesome truth that we must decide for ourselves, and find ways to participate in a networked world without counting on anyone else.

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