3 ms·

Isn't the very point of self-organization and self-management that you can't read how to do it in a book? It has to arise organically and be built through share

Isn't the very point of self-organization and self-management that you can't read how to do it in a book? It has to arise organically and be built through shared interaction. Especially for software companies, I've always found the idea of using external workflow and management software to be a little bit abhorrent, like wearing someone else's underwear. It should be your way of doing things, and software you use to help you is just a way of codifying and automating that. In the same way we customize our editors, we should customize our workplaces so that they reflect the unique sets of people and activities they contain. And of course, other people have pointed out the irony of a hierarchical mandate for change to a non-hierarchical system. I am reminded of an apocryphal story of drug testing at a university. They had a sampling of senior executives, professors, and researchers go first, to prove that it applied to everyone. When a substantial number of them failed, the testing program was quietly shelved.

calibraxis 12y ago
Decent forms of anarcho-syndicalism aim at advanced, complex industrial societies. Therefore there can be lots of lit on running effective self-managing teams, replacing today's managerial lit. For example, how do you run a good consensus meeting? Start from scratch and probably make elementary blunders, leading to sullen participants? Or grab say Starhawk's book and arm oneself with common patterns? A book is just transmission of info. Societies which do lots of consensus transmit lessons somehow. (Via book, oral and/or experiential ways.) (Disclaimer: I'm not very familiar with "holacracy", outside my simple google search.)
- jaggederest 12y ago
  > For example, how do you run a good consensus meeting? Start from scratch and probably make elementary blunders, leading to sullen participants? Or grab say Starhawk's book and arm oneself with common patterns? I completely agree. Where I diverge from the path I see a lot of people take is when you start believing in those books with a fervency, without going through the process on your own. Use them to inform, not instruct. A great example is the Toyota Production System book. People who go for 'kanban' and 'mura muda muri' and ape the terminology and methods have it all wrong - the whole point is that it's a system they built for themselves. It's great advice on how to build such systems, but if you just take it off the shelf and try to use it as is, again, it'll feel like someone else's underwear since it wasn't built to fit you.

calibraxis 12y ago

Decent forms of anarcho-syndicalism aim at advanced, complex industrial societies. Therefore there can be lots of lit on running effective self-managing teams, replacing today's managerial lit. For example, how do you run a good consensus meeting? Start from scratch and probably make elementary blunders, leading to sullen participants? Or grab say Starhawk's book and arm oneself with common patterns? A book is just transmission of info. Societies which do lots of consensus transmit lessons somehow. (Via book, oral and/or experiential ways.) (Disclaimer: I'm not very familiar with "holacracy", outside my simple google search.)

jaggederest 12y ago
> For example, how do you run a good consensus meeting? Start from scratch and probably make elementary blunders, leading to sullen participants? Or grab say Starhawk's book and arm oneself with common patterns? I completely agree. Where I diverge from the path I see a lot of people take is when you start believing in those books with a fervency, without going through the process on your own. Use them to inform, not instruct. A great example is the Toyota Production System book. People who go for 'kanban' and 'mura muda muri' and ape the terminology and methods have it all wrong - the whole point is that it's a system they built for themselves. It's great advice on how to build such systems, but if you just take it off the shelf and try to use it as is, again, it'll feel like someone else's underwear since it wasn't built to fit you.