maxopedia

I have never been good in dealing with those that assume they have authority. On the flip side of the coin, I am generally not good at ordering people around. It's not that I lack orders I could give, but rather that I don't feel I have that right over others.

Only the most serious of endeavors - organized warfare - truly requires a highly demarcated chain of command. Soldiers are not supposed to question orders for a good reason; they lack information. Not only do they lack information, they frequently lack the time to analyze that information and come to their own conclusions. Thus, I advance the notion that commands and orders are particularly nasty types of efficiency measures. They empower the giver and dehumanize the receiver while at the same time standing in place of true consensus.

As I've said before, the larger a corporation gets, the more it becomes like a total institution, with policies, procedures, and eminent managerial domain standing in place of consensual and reasoned analysis. These items may have been put into play based on healthful guiding principles, but by their very codification have become breeding grounds for petty power plays and other insidious inefficiencies. The letter of the law means far less than the spirit.

Businesses have the difficult goal of erecting a supportive and comprehensive framework for their constituents while still allowing them a great deal of autonomy. However, people don't generally do well inside of boxes, unless they are of their own construction.

It's my dream to be able to build an organization on the principles of true consensus. I'm not going to hold my breath.