Insurrection & Protest LO16284

Bill Harris (billh@lsid.hp.com)
Fri, 19 Dec 1997 08:33:29 -0800 (PST)

Replying to LO16268 --

Ben,

you wrote:

> One of the rules I've proposed is that there be a method of creating what
> I would call a "corporate insurrection." A way for people within an
> organization to rise up, rebel, and protest the behavior of the
> organization.

What you describe sounds pretty interesting and may make your organization
pretty resilient to future environmental change.

A number of years ago, when I was at TI, they had an interesting program
that had some similarities, although it was more product/technically
focused. They called it the "IDEA" program (an acronym, I'm sure). If
you had an idea for a product and you couldn't sell it to your management,
you could make your case to any IDEA coordinator in TI anywhere in the
world (I believe every major site had one). If you could find _any_ IDEA
coordinator (typically a mid-level manager) who liked your idea, that
person could fund your working on it, up to ~6 months, as I recall. The
presumption was that the IDEA coordinator's support would allow you to
develop your idea enough so that it could get a fair chance at being heard
and considered. One famous and successful product that got its start
through that program was the Speak n' Spell.

The key similarity between the TI approach and yours seems to be the
notion that the organization may develop some local blind spots or
hardening of the Corporate arteries and that the organization as a whole
should have a way to respond well to those. I see it as an
acknowledgement that things don't always go well and as part of a safety
system to help the system get back on track when those inevitable problems
occur.

I'd be curious to hear how it goes, if you do put such a thing in place.
Of course, it may take some time before it gets exercised the first time.

Bill

-- 
Bill Harris                             Hewlett-Packard Co. 
R&D Engineering Processes               Lake Stevens Division 
domain: billh@lsid.hp.com               M/S 330
phone: (425) 335-2200                   8600 Soper Hill Road
fax: (425) 335-2828                     Everett, WA 98205-1298 


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