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Flat doesn't work because people from childhood on have been taught to listen to teacher, listen to boss, listen to parent. Is it any wonder people don't know

by mempko 11y ago

Flat doesn't work because people from childhood on have been taught to listen to teacher, listen to boss, listen to parent. Is it any wonder people don't know how to work together independently of authority figures? I think some civic training would be good for people working in flat organizations. They need to be un-educated.

nickff 11y ago
>"I think some civic training would be good for people working in flat organizations. They need to be un-educated." Do you mean 'de-educated' or 're-educated'? There are plenty of uneducated people. You asssert that flat organizations could do well, but without any examples or evidence to back you up, I am inclined to disagree. If flat organizations were better, I would expect that some out of the hundreds of thousands (if not more) companies in the developed world would use that system.
- mempko 11y ago
  Slavery lasted over thousand years as an economic system. Feudalism lasted just as long. Your argument back then would have been "if capitalist firms were better, I would expect some. People in the feudalist world would use that system". As a matter of fact, there are thousands or such flat firms. Just as during feudalism there were thousands of capitalist firms that would fail. Failure is does not mean it won't work in 10, 50 or 100 years. There will be a time when we think of managers the same way we think of kings now.
  - nickff 11y ago
    It's possible that flat organizations are the future, but it is not true that all organizations were lord-serf in feudal times or that slave labor was the only sort of labor in its time (, in fact slavery still exists). Please show some examples of flat firms, which are not the highly centralized sort described in the OP, I am interested in reading about them. As far as I have seen, all so-called flat organizations are actually very centralized for all important decisions.
    - mempko 11y ago
      One of the largest is of course Mondragon in Spain which employs 74,000 or so workers. Flat is usually called "Socialist" in the rest of the world.

by mempko 11y ago

nickff 11y ago

>"I think some civic training would be good for people working in flat organizations. They need to be un-educated." Do you mean 'de-educated' or 're-educated'? There are plenty of uneducated people. You asssert that flat organizations could do well, but without any examples or evidence to back you up, I am inclined to disagree. If flat organizations were better, I would expect that some out of the hundreds of thousands (if not more) companies in the developed world would use that system.

mempko 11y ago
Slavery lasted over thousand years as an economic system. Feudalism lasted just as long. Your argument back then would have been "if capitalist firms were better, I would expect some. People in the feudalist world would use that system". As a matter of fact, there are thousands or such flat firms. Just as during feudalism there were thousands of capitalist firms that would fail. Failure is does not mean it won't work in 10, 50 or 100 years. There will be a time when we think of managers the same way we think of kings now.
- nickff 11y ago
  It's possible that flat organizations are the future, but it is not true that all organizations were lord-serf in feudal times or that slave labor was the only sort of labor in its time (, in fact slavery still exists). Please show some examples of flat firms, which are not the highly centralized sort described in the OP, I am interested in reading about them. As far as I have seen, all so-called flat organizations are actually very centralized for all important decisions.
  - mempko 11y ago
    One of the largest is of course Mondragon in Spain which employs 74,000 or so workers. Flat is usually called "Socialist" in the rest of the world.