The machine model sees work and work relationships like this.
We are so used to this that we think it is normal. Work is broken up into pieces and people are fitted in as parts. Most of the energy and cost in the organization is used up in control. In fact control and the preservation of the organization at all costs is the real mission.
The budget process is the most important process in the traditional organization. Budgets, not value, determine who has the power. Controlling large budgets, large numbers of people and large physical plant is what gives you power. At a time when the jargon is all about being close to the customer, the traditional reward system values being a bureaucrat. The further you are away from the customer, the more powerful you become. Career success is determined by obtaining and using good bureaucratic skills. The result is a managerial emphasis and a bias against creativity.
In fact, a real organization looks like this.
There is a hierarchy but of connectedness. Everything in this network is designed to enhance the "Whole". Such a network is constantly evolving. In a machine you have to break it to change. In a network, change is normal. The network also learns from every point. A traditional organization restricts the input to the top.
Traditional organizations are engineered and as such can easily only fit one purpose - so when the environment changes, they cannot. They are like this Wendy House. If the kids grew up what would they use it for?
Organic organizations are like Lego. The parts fit in many ways to build whatever is needed.
Machine structures were fine in their day but are hopeless, by design, in times of change. So any organization that imagines that they can maintain a traditional structure at a time of accelerating and disruptive change is acting out a fantasy.
Not only is the traditional organization obsolete in times of change but it also drives a huge personal cost for all involved not the least the employee. At the heart of the costs are the issues of control which we have talked about before and the costs in family and child rearing caused by the artificial split between work and home.
As we become a more urban world, commuting to and from work drives many costs. First we don't see our children during the day. Second we don't socialize with our neighbors and have to replace the interaction with the neighbor or the grocer with a radio personality or with music on our iPod. The only social interaction we have is with the co-workers who all compete with us and hence have mainly 'autistic' relationships with us.
What do I mean by this? The workplace is full of friendly words about people being our most important asset and teamwork etc. But the reality is that this is all lies. The organization comes first. And under stress it is every man for himself. I suspect that we get so used to these instrumental relationships that we take them home with us and use them with our partners and worse with our children. We no longer feel real at work and increasingly not at home either as most women are now in this workforce. No wonder 40% of working women take antidepressants!
So why then are we so addicted to things, food and drugs? Is it because our deep primate needs to be in real relationships have been denied? Do we not have such a hunger to mean something and to belong that not finding it at home or at work, we find it in food and other addictions?
The good news is that we don't have to have a revolution. The revolution is under way. All we have to know is what it is so that we can see if we want to choose a better life.
More later
Technorati Tags: Change, Culture, Family, Networks, Organization, Relationships
