Thinking about they way organisations work, the “industrial” model of hierarchical functional management, expertise and knowledge hoarded, and little transparency of effort and outcomes is way past its use buy date.
We are social animals, who evolved in a village, usually not more than 150 people, where all the individuals made their contributions by way of what they were best at, and the group benefitted.
The age of the net 2.0 is bringing back the notion of the collaborative potential of the village as distinct from the hierarchical structure of the corporation.
This is a different way of organising ourselves. We need to be more adaptive and collaborative, the outcome of the whole system is the objective, not just the benefit that may accrue to an individual.
I lik ethe analogy here, however whilst in small villages working collaberatively there was a more defined pathway and role expectations were clear. Net 2.0 is bringing back the notion however who are he emrging elders, also present in the village, who will define roles and maintain order??
Good question.
I think wisdom is the core ingredient, and Elders are a metaphor for the wisdom, as in the old days, age equalled experience, and therefore wisdom borne of the experience went with age. I do not think it is so much now, as our lives are so diverse that age and wisdom no longer go together so well, the relationship has been eroded by the net phenomena, just as the net drives us back to the collaborative village. Bit of a paradox there.
Our roles also evolve, the pathway is just more complicated than in the past, where the roles of each in the village was significantly dictated by the role of the parent, father blacksmith, son blacksmith. They still evolve, but the process is far more subject to outside influences, particularly the exercise of the leadership roles, both parental and organisational.