Welcome to the networked era ... for better or worse, the conditions that create the need for a new paradigm for our individual and collective futures are settling into place. The Internet and the Web have been an insistently-growing part of our everyday lives for a decade now, and we're just starting to get used to the ways they are penetrating a wide range of organized human activity, both at work and elsewhere.
Wirearchy is an (emerging) organizing principle for this new environment in which interconnected networks of people carry out the full range of human activities, .... commerce, work, research, education, gossip, news.
The impacts of wirearchy are showing up in clear ways all around us, and can be seen in daily events and in the ways people are working, behaving, and buying. Examples are reported on regularly, as the impacts of living in the digital infrastructure of an electronic age take root.
What Is Wirearchy ?
We all know and understand hierarchy - the enduring principle of the institutions that govern us and in which we work and live. The people at the top of the institutions control the agendas and make the decisions, which are then "pushed" out and down to be executed, implemented, followed.
That's changing.
The Web lets individual and connected groups of people "pull" information they want and/or need together in limitless combinations and ways, and distribute it amongst connections in almost any configuration.
This "wired" environment provides the conditions for a dramatic re-making of power relationships built on information and knowledge. Online, consumers or colleagues or students or researchers (and so on) can operate in interconnected groups focused on given issues, topics or interests ("Ridiculously easy group-forming", noted Clay Shirky in the 2009 book Here Comes Everybody) ... through sharing of information and knowledge, they can and do exert power that has not heretofore existed. Generally, this (new) power seeks greater openness (often called transparency) by established institutions and markets with respect to practical information.
The shift in power we are watching emerge is also observable in the workplace of 2010, generally, as integrated information systems and the Web are the platforms upon which today's work is being carried out. The integration of databases, interfaces, hyperlinks and so on have created a new cognitive and social environment in which people increasingly work together and alone, and both synchronously and asynchronously.
With regard to the growing complexity of the new interconnected work environment, an enormous amount of opinion and theory has already been written about the reduced effectiveness of traditional hierarchy's dynamics of command-and-control as a touchstone management principle. Via networks, we are all making a transition to an environment in which championing ideas and then channeling and coordinating resources in order to achieve objectives are becoming the most effective means of increasing productivity and effectiveness.
The new interconnected environment demands new principles for organizing collaborative activity. Traditional hierarchy does not lead and support networked activity as well as newer forms and principles.
The Internet is connecting customers, employees and communities and empowering them with information in ways never before possible. Taking decisions and managing organized activities are being impacted in powerful ways by interconnected networks of people and technology.
The impacts we're experiencing are creating new dynamics in organizations as well as emergent forms of organized activities that are based on participation and peer-to-peer interaction. As people get used to operating in these new conditions, often (but not always) the results are nimble, responsive, and results-focused networked groups and teams.
And ... over the last ten years, it has become quite clear that the impacts of these living social networks will only grow, both in depth and reach.
A major shift in the ways activities are planned and managed is occurring in many spheres of human activity, from command-and-control to coordinate-and-channel. When customers have more power and employees want to communicate and be heard, the dynamics have to change.
A new organizing principle is emerging, called Wirearchy. The working definition of wirearchy is:
a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority based on information, knowledge, trust and credibility, enabled by interconnected people and technology
(Image courtesy of Marc Ngui)
Today's rapid flows of information are like electronic grains of sand, eroding the pillars of rigid hierarchies. This new set of conditions is having real impact on organizational structures and on the ways we do things and behave.
As an organizing principle for the networked era, wirearchy will continue to emerge and have impact. The generations coming into the workplace have interactive games, ICQ, Napster, chat rooms, MySpace, Facebook, and ubiquitous mobility under their skin. They're equipped with smarter software, and they take interconnectedness and flow for granted - it's second nature to them.
Polarities are appearing everywhere (hence the oft-cited notion of Both/And rather than Either/Or). Different dimensions and dynamics of influence, power and control are emerging at various nodes of the interconnected workplace and world.
The dynamics of wirearchy are similar to, and different than, traditional hierarchy - yet need effective hierarchical structure and action to work smoothly.
Some of this is exhilarating, and great. Some of it is not. Some of it is about greater confusion, stress and frantic action. Some of it is about clarity, calm and right action in the context of an interconnected world.
The next fifty years will be about learning how we will behave, effectively and otherwise, in an interconnected world and workplace.
Stay tuned .. there's lots more to come. The Internet is here to stay, and we in all likelihood will never go back to the way things were done before it's arrival.
Having said that, it's certain that making definitive predictions is one of the surest ways to make a fool of oneself. So, please consider the preceding paragraph to be an informed opinion and not a prediction.
What Wirearchy Means For You
As a Leader - become deeply aware of - and truly mindful about - the scope and reach of interconnected markets and flows of information. Understand how people are connecting, talking, sharing information. Be prepared to listen deeply, be responsible, accountable and transparent.
As a Manager - become knowledgeable about online work systems and how the need for collaboration is changing the nature of work, generally - and the nature of managerial work specifically. Learning how to be an effective coach is all-important.
As an Employee - become more aware of the changing nature of work, and the traditional structures of authority. Develop a clear understanding of how to be both empowered and valuable and of service. Understand how to navigate on one's own through a constantly shifting landscape of work.
As a Citizen - understand the possibilities and responsibilities inherent in open and public dissemination of information. Understand and exercise the responsibilities of citizenship in a country. Understand how to have influence via electronic participation and collaboration.
How To Respond to Wirearchy
It is about adapting on a continuous basis, to an environment that keeps changing based on real-time feedback.
This means:
- being aware of, and identifying, the changes,
- setting a direction for a desired future,
- translating that into goals,
- learning how to fulfill the goals,
- taking the necessary actions.
As the impacts of information technology have penetrated more deeply and pervasively into the workplace, the nature of work has shifted. The first responses were a general flattening of organizational structure and a focus on developing and implementing teamwork.
Today, the responses are emerging thick and fast - and there are clear patterns emerging from those responses.
Today's patterns will become tomorrow's structures. The time to begin adapting is now.
Please get in touch with me via email ( jon.husband AT gmail.com) or Twitter (@jonhusband) if you want to talk more about what all this means for you or an organization you work with.
