The Shift
When it comes to the digital on-line world of information, and its impacts on us as its reach and presence continue to grow, we human beings have a large challenge in front of us.
Much of the business world has encased its business processes in *electronic concrete* over the past 10 years ... in ERP systems, CRM applications and a wide range of B2B business exchanges of some sort or other. Today, people routinely use text and image software applications to carry out almost all work activities.
And, in 4 short years there has been huge impact on work, business, politics, journalism and culture ... from blogging and other forms of social software
As we communicate, and as the mountains of data and information grow, the dynamics of staying afloat and not drowning in a sea of bytes continue to make significant changes to the ways we work and carry out business activities.
It's clear we need to be continuously learning in order to adapt. One of the digerati, Richard Saul Wurman, the author of Information Anxiety and creator of the TED conferences, has stated that "the next great business is the learning business".
Why is the next great business the learning business ? When millions of us are learning all the time - using our mouses, handhelds, games and simulations - to find out what customers want, what we need to do, and how to do it - how will our organizations and work lives continue to evolve ?
If "understanding is power" and all-the-time-on-line access to information and knowledge becomes second-nature, how can we stay effective in the midst of overwhelming change?
We have seen an explosion of responses to the dissolving of the effectiveness of hierarchy's "command-and-control". Individual customers and small groups are gaining more power every day.
Organizations have flattened their structures, intranets have blossomed, knowledge management is becoming an important domain, and leaders and managers everywhere are turning into (or trying to) coaches. "Champion-coordinate-and-channel" is becoming the way to develop new ideas and get things done.
Hierarchy is not disappearing - it's shifting in shape. Power and authority are being dispersed, and are concentrating in different places. Individual customers have much greater access to knowledge, and thus more power, than ever before. Nodes of interest and knowledge form on the Internet, in cells and networks inside organizations, and in linkages, relationships and connections based on shared interests, values and trust between friends, in communities and as customers.
In North America, in Europe, in Asia - all over the world - a new principle and a new set of dynamic characteristics of power and authority are growing. Hierarchy is evolving - towards a new principle we've called Wirearchy.
A working definition of wirearchy is:
a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority, based on knowledge, credibility, trust and a focus on results, enabled by interconnected people and technology.
Hierarchy has typically meant:
- Size
- Role Clarity
- Functional specialization
- Power
Wirearchy is shaping up to mean:
- Speed
- Flexibility
- Integration
- Innovation
The new principle is driving an emerging interconnected 'Real-Time' Economy - and major changes to our societies. High-tech, Internet and wireless companies are building a new infrastructure for the world of organizations and human interaction - the world of customers, connections and communities interacts with businesses and governments that offer innovative, flexible, integrated and rapid responses to individual and community needs and desires.
How will we work in this economy? How does the customer touch an organization's work? What will it mean to be a good citizen? Are top management in touch with the digital world that keeps growing? Can you interact with peers and bosses in ways that make sense?
Wirearchy is an (emerging) organizing principle that can help people and organizations make useful choices by clarifying what's working and not working. Analyses of social and organizational networks are the key tools for understanding and assessing wirearchy.
It can provide a clear context for the processes, tools and decisions being used to deal with this immense challenge.