About free organisations @ Reboot10

Reboot10 is already almost over. Currently listening to Traci Fentons talk about free organisations. She's indicating that democratising organisations will create more engaged / enthousiastic employees. Hierarchical orgs are based on fear and dictatorship which disengages people. According to surveys 71% of people are not feeling happy at work which is a serious problem, beacause it has an effect on our thinking, acting etc. So the goal is to design an organisation in where people feel free! In a free workspace 80% would be happy. And this doesn't mean that the individual will be more effective, but the collective! Now Traci is presenting all this with a thick American sauce poured over it, ut she does make a good point!

I think not everyone is equally productive. There are leaders, mentors, workers etc. and they all have a role in a team, but while one produces many documents, another one may not produce any doc at all, while thinking of new ideas etc, and together they will make a good team! this is nothing new, but in the traditional organisation everything is around individual productivity and accountability. Creating fear: am I doing this correct? Not sharing ideas: if I share, someone else could use my idea and show off with it etc. So no "free" in those organisations, instead angst and frustration will rise.

So how do we create an environment that will make people truly free in the work that they do? Here's a list according to Traci:

1: Purpose and Vision
2: Transparency
3: Dialog and Listening
4: Fairness and Dignity
5: Accountability
6: Individual and Collective
7: Choice
8: Integrity
9: Decentralisation (power to the people)
10: Reflection and Evaluation (how can we be better?)

I guess it's a pretty big list, but It's still kind of vague. She also indicates the net must play a role, but doesn't really go into this subject. It was an interesting presentation. (the guys from the Pirate Bay are up now!)

I think the idea of individual productivity is old. It's a concept from the industrial age where people were(are) expected to work an X number of hours a day and produce an X number of items (products / docs /calculations etc). The information age has been around already for a few decades (starting with Shannon in the fifties) and according to some we're on the verge of a new age. Organisations should open up. Hierarchy creates a top to bottom structure - people telling you what you must do (dictatorship). How can organisations effectively be managed in this way?

Sharing information (Web2.0) and Collaboration (Web3.0) create an environment where people are more open and less frustrated and therefore more happy - Automatically channeling information to all locations in a company (flow). I believe this will make a team more than the sum of the people who are in it.

(I'll now continue listening to the lads from the Pirate Bay - act on ACTA)