Cara's question is very timely for me. I'm working with a client now who
is having a similar dilemma. When we feel we are "losing control" of a
situation, we tend to believe that we need to get more formalized and
structured. It is a natural reflex for most of us who work in traditional
business environments.
I encourage her NOT to do this. Reference materials that will help her
make her case include BRINT.COM's materials on chaos theory
(www.brint.com), and business process reengineering, Margaret Wheatley's
materials on self-organizing systems, and all the literature written about
cultural conflict when teams are dealt an authoritarian blow. Another
good source of structural information to build appropriate policies and
procedures for a self-organizing group is John Carver's book, "Boards That
Make A Difference." Although directed at nonprofit groups, the concepts
are just as useful in a self-organizing business setting with some
modifications.
The basic premise that Carver uses to build the organizing guidelines is
to specify what is NOT acceptable, rather than try to specify every little
thing that must be done to accomplish a task. As anyone knows who has
tried to draft P&P, this is a daunting process. If the larger function of
determining what cannot be done is established by higher management, teams
are free to determine their own specific processes at they work best for
them. Of course, they are responsible for documenting them and having
them approved, but it works.
Please contact me directly if you have other questions or need specific
journals. There are several of them.
Vana Prewitt
Praxis Learning Systems
vprewitt@bellsouth.net
Levinson, Cara wrote:
> Specificlly I work for an organization that is doubling in size each year.
> We have managed the change well, by creating a team-based structure. Teams
> are formed to serve the needs of our clients, from beginning to end. The
> teammembers operate as if they are running their own small business.
> Management oversees the teams, but pushes decisions to the team level as
> much as possible. There is current discussion about the need to apply a
> more formal strucuture across the organization to manage our growth. >
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