Institutions in the Age of Mindcrafting

David Lamberton

Chris Lindeman

Janel Metzger

Wade Nelson

Dan Trebble

Institutions in the Age of Mindcrafting Overview

• History of organizations

• Why this is important

• Three Universal Laws about why organizations are outdated

• Chaos with order

History of Organizations

• Newtonian science is the father• Stating every action has an equal and

opposite reaction

• Gave rise to machine metaphor

History of Organizations

• Industrial Revolution is mother• Enforced conformity and routine behaviour

• Centralized authority created a class of managers

• At present, the Universities have a monopoly on managers

Why This is Important

• All the “re”’s that are now so popular – reorganize, reengineering, reinventing are incorrect

• Implies that one just needs a new version of what already exists

• The need to reconceive organization

Three Universal Laws

Law # 1Law # 1 Law # 2Law # 2 Law # 3Law # 3

Everything has consequences

Simple is intelligent

Co-operation and competition are equally valuable

Law #1

• Everything, has both intended and unintended consequences. The intended consequences may or may not happen; the unintended ones always do.

Law #1

• Implies obvious unintended results

• We call them accidents

• In organizations it is difficult to predict the outcome of an action

History of the Charge Card

• 1966 Bank of America launched BankAmericard

• In response, 5 banks in California launched MasterCharge

• 1968 operating, credit and fraud losses were believed to be in the tens of millions of dollars

History of the Charge Card

• Infant industry was out of control

• Formed a committee of six to come up with a solution

• Realized traditional structures could not work

Law #2

• Simple, clear purposes and principles give rise to complex, intelligent behaviour. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple, stupid behaviour.

• Control stifles ingenuity

Law #2

• Classic versus Modern art

• Everyone can tell what it is, no question

• Modern left up to interpretation

• One gets a sense that it was painted for them and each interpretation is different

Law #2

Law #3

• Everything is its opposite –particularly competition and co-operation. Neither can rise to its highest potential unless both are seamlessly blended. Either without the other swiftly becomes dangerous and destructive.

Law #3

• Ying Yang – opposite in every way• Together they create a symbol known

worldwide

• Apart they are meaningless shapes

The Three Laws

• These laws suggest something that the modern organization does not have – chaos with order

• Uninhibited, unbound thought directed at a goal

Chaos with Order

Chaord – any self-organizing, adaptive, non-linear, complex community or system, whether physical, biological or social, the behaviour of which exhibits characteristics of both order and chaos; any chaotically ordered complex.

Chaos with Order

• Organizations are currently downward looking in regards to management

• That perception is wrong• Manage one’s self

• Manage those who have authority over us

• Manage peers

• Manage those over whom we have authority

A Look Back at VISA

• Unstructured organization

• No political, economic, social or legal theory

• Can therefore transcend language, customs, politics and culture

A Look Back at VISA

• Successfully connects institutions and people of every persuasion

• Has multiple boards of directors within a single legal entity

• No one entity can be considered superior or inferior and each has authority and autonomy over geographic areas

“The nature of our modern management phenomenon is the creation and control of

constants, uniformity and efficiency”

BUT

“The need has shifted to understand and co-ordinate variability, complexity, and

effectiveness”

“We need to address the fact that organizational structures of the

industrial revolution, of conformity, are outdated and need changing so the knowledge workers have chances to use their knowledge

and ingenuity”

“We think that with more hierarchical command and

control, we could pull a lever at one end and get a precise result at the other end, and know with certainty which

lever to pull for which result”

“Never mind that human beings must be made to

work like cogs and wheels in the process”

“Without question, the most abundant, least expensive,

most underutilized and frequently abused resource in the world today is human

ingenuity”

“It is leadership this world so badly needs,

and so-called “scientific management” it so

sadly gets”

“Given the right circumstances, from no

more than dreams, determination and the

liberty to try, quite ordinary ordinary peoplepeople consistently do extraordinary things.”

Question

Do you think that this organizational structure would be effective in a University setting; self or group teaching and no professor to be accountable to?