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These are ''[[informal]]'' interactions. They are not well-documented, nor from above, well-understood. They are hard to see. They are il[[legible]]. Yet, everyone who has worked in a large organisation knows that there are a small number of key people, usually not occupying formally significant roles — they are too busy getting things done for that — who keep the whole place running. These “super-nodes” know histories, have networks, intuitively understand how the organisation really works, what you have to do and who you have to speak to to get things done. These are the [[ad hoc]] mechanics who keep the the superstructure on the road. | These are ''[[informal]]'' interactions. They are not well-documented, nor from above, well-understood. They are hard to see. They are il[[legible]]. Yet, everyone who has worked in a large organisation knows that there are a small number of key people, usually not occupying formally significant roles — they are too busy getting things done for that — who keep the whole place running. These “super-nodes” know histories, have networks, intuitively understand how the organisation really works, what you have to do and who you have to speak to to get things done. These are the [[ad hoc]] mechanics who keep the the superstructure on the road. | ||
Often management won’t have much idea who these “super-nodes” are, precisely because they do not derive their significance from their ''formal status'', but from their ''in''formal ''function''. They earn this reputation daily, interaction by interaction. | |||
A bottom-up map of functional interactions would disregard the artificial cascade of formal ''authority'' in favour of informal ''credibility''. It would reveal the organisation as a point-to-point multi-nodal network, far richer than the flimsy frame indicated by the org chart. With modern data analytics, it would not even be hard to do: Log the firm’s communication records for data to see where those communications go: who chats with whom? who calls whom? Who emails whom? What is the informal structure of the firm? Who are the major nodes? | |||
=== Modernism vs. agilism === | |||
The [[modernist]] sees the firm is a unitary machine that must be centrally managed and controlled from the top: the more organisational structure the better. The “agilist” advocates removing layers, disestablishing [[silo]]s, and decluttering the organisational structure. Don’t ''rely'' on those senior managers: ''get rid of them''. | |||
The agile theory is that risks and opportunities arise unexpectedly, in places unanticipated by the formal management structure. The optimal organising principle is: allow talented [[subject matter expert]]<nowiki/>s flexibility and discretion to react to those risks and opportunities. Have the best people, with the best equipment, in the best place to react skilfully. Those people aren’t [[middle manager|middle managers]], the optimal equipment isn’t necessarily the one that leaves the best audit trail, and that place is not the board room, nor the [[steering committee]] or the [[operating committee]]. | |||
The agile theory is that risks and opportunities | |||
It is out there in the jungle. Management should seek the fewest number of formal impediments to the creative behaviour of those people. | It is out there in the jungle. Management should seek the fewest number of formal impediments to the creative behaviour of those people. | ||
So to understand a business one needs not understand its formal structure, but its ''informal'' structure: not the roles but the people who fill them: who are the key people whom others go to to help get things done; to break through logjams, to ensure the management is on side? | |||
These lines will not show up in any organisational structure. They are not what {{author|James C. Scott}} would describe as legible. They are hard to see: they are the beaten tracks through the jungle: the neural pathways that light up when the machine is thinking. They show up in email traffic, phone records, swipecode data.{{sa}} | |||
{{sa}} | |||
*[[Line management]] | *[[Line management]] | ||
*[[Reduction in force]] | *[[Reduction in force]] | ||
*[[Dotted line]] | *[[Dotted line]] | ||
{{ref}} | {{ref}} |