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The Tyranny of Stucturelessness
By making it easier for groups to self-assemble and for individuals to contribute to group effort without requiring formal management (and its attendant overhead), these tools have radically altered the old limits on the size, sophistication, and scope of unsupervised effort (the limits that created the institutional dilemma in the first place). Th
... See moreClay Shirky • Here Comes Everybody
hierarchical structures are a poor choice for multistakeholder collaborations. By holding on to control, the people at the top of hierarchies limit the self-organizing potential of the rest of the system.
David Ehrlichman • Impact Networks: Create Connection, Spark Collaboration, and Catalyze Systemic Change
Durova's fourth law: small organizations run on relationships. Formal policies emerge when the organization becomes too large to operate on that basis. Policies continue to grow in both quantity and complexity in proportion to organizational growth until the policies no longer work, at which point policies remain in place while the organization rev... See more
Andrew Lih • The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia
Don’t hold the reins too tight. While having a vision is important, too much structure can stifle spontaneity and creativity. Giving members freedom to take the initiative can lead to unexpected manifestations of collective curiosity, and embracing distributed leadership, where responsibilities are shared among group members, promotes collaboration
... See moreAnne-Laure Le Cunff • Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World
Phyllis’s insight that “the engineers can’t work without a specification” applies to most organized human effort. Like the Surveyor design teams, every organization faces a situation where the full complexity and ambiguity of the situation is daunting. An important duty of any leader is to absorb a large part of that complexity and ambiguity, passi
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