Orchestration Is New Command and Control

In the tangible economy, mechanization and mass production drove huge productivity gains as manufactured goods replaced those made by hand. These efficiencies came through strict discipline. Managers could describe to their employees in great detail the smartest way to accomplish their work: “Take Part A, attach these two screws then join Part A to Part B.”  Through time and motion studies, the fastest and most efficient way to do things could be identified. To achieve these results, employees had to adhere to strict guidelines. In such an organization, decision-making was an activity that resided with management. Like military commanders, the word of managers was the guide for corporate action. This was a classic command and control model.

But in today’s world, your company is really a series of networks. These networks include both internal and external players. Knowledge is dispersed throughout the network—it is not concentrated in the managerial class. And the organization needs that knowledge to succeed. This means that a traditional hierarchical approach where knowledge and power flow from the top down will not get you the results you need. To describe this model, we borrow the image of orchestration from Peter Drucker. Read more

Fighting Flu From the Bottom Up

Our new book has a chapter on how management has shifted from command and control to a model of “orchestration,” which is a term first used by Peter Drucker. The basic idea is that knowledge and communication have been turbocharged by technology. This means that the answers to most questions no longer reside at the top of an organization, as they did in the industrial economy. They are distributed among everyone in the organization. Better actions come when you set free the power of the knowledge and ideas at the bottom of the organization. That turns many traditional management approaches on their head.

The understanding of this is growing throughout our society. That’s why I was really glad to read David Brooks’ take on the global reaction to the swine flu crisis in the New York Times this week. Read more

Management Lessons on Web 2.0

Thanks to KNOW Network here for the great summary of McKinsey’s suggestions here on how to make Web 2.0 work:

1. The transformation to a bottom-up culture needs help from the top.
2. The best uses come from users – but they require help to scale.
3. What’s in the workflow is what gets used.
4. Appeal to the participants’ egos and needs – not just their wallets.
5. The right solution comes from the right participants.
6. Balance the top-down and self-management of risk. Read more