Gary Hamel wrote another provocative piece at ERE.net on how the structure, options, and collective norms of the Web offer inspirations for the next phase of organizational leadership. I encourage you to contrast these points against how you currently operate within your organization and see if some or all of them might be used to increase involvement, understanding, or results.
Hamel writes “The experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of Generation Facebook. At a minimum, they’ll expect the social environment of their worklife to reflect the social context of the Web, rather than a mid-twentieth-century bureaucracy.
With that in mind, I compiled a list of 12 work-relevant characteristics of the social Web. These are the post-bureaucratic realities that tomorrow’s employees will use as yardsticks in determining whether your company is ‘‘with it’’ or ‘‘past it.’’ In assembling this short list, I haven’t tried to catalogue every salient feature of the Web’s social milieu, only those that are most at odds with the legacy management practices that characterize most companies. (Please see the original article for more information on each bullet point):
-All ideas compete on an equal footing.
-Contribution counts for more than credentials.
-Hierarchies are built bottom-up.
-Leaders serve rather than preside.
-Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
-Groups are self-defining and self-organizing.
-Resources get attracted, not allocated.
-Power comes from sharing, not hoarding.
-Mediocrity gets exposed.
-Dissidents can join forces.
-Users can veto most policy decisions.
-Intrinsic rewards matter most.
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