Sublime

The institution’s activity is divided into chunks, which are also perceived as entities; these chunks are divided into smaller chunks, and so on. In every chunk there is a boss-man, with lesser bosses reporting to him and running the smaller chunks.

The bond between a boss and the subordinate often makes for an unhealthy parent-child relationship. In self-managing organizations, the system pushes us to behave in adult-to-adult relationships, whatever our differences in education, seniority, and scope of work.

Self-managing organizations naturally provide for exceptional learning opportunities.

Many give lip service, but few delegate authority in important matters. And that means all they delegate is dog-work. A real leader does as much dog-work for his people as he can: he can do it, or see a way to do without it, ten times as fast. And he delegates as many important matters as he can because that creates a climate in which people grow.

The second book he bought was Drift into Failure by Sidney Dekker, which he passed out to all his IT infrastructure and operations people. Dekker’s book forces organizational managers to rethink blame and accountability in complex processes. When something goes wrong, it asks, “Should you blame the person? Or is it the system?”2*