Regarding the request for articles on learning in hierarchical
organizations - a colleague of our's shared a series of articles in the
Washington Post on the recent Marine Corps Urban Warrier exercise in
Monterey and Oakland California. The exercise is being covered as an
experiment in how a self-organizing network adapts itself to the
complexities of an urban battlefield and the implications of such a
network inside a command and control organizational hierarchy such as the
Marine Corps. The first article describes the experiment and the results
the experiment designers were looking for. The second includes some
preliminary insights as the result of early lessons-learned. The quote
immediately below is from the second article.
"The Marines were equipped with tiny experimental computers ... to
provide them unprecedented views of the battlefield... Those are going
back to the drawing board. On the other hand, cheap off-the-shelf radios
performed so well they will become part of the American battle kit as soon
as possible."
"But the real lessons were rarely about gear. They were about psychology.
What the Marines repeatedly came away with were new insights into how
humans must behave to thrive in the chaos and speed of the 21st century.
They also gained a new reverence for adaptability and innovation.
"They discovered, for example, that if they gave a bunch of 19-year-old
corporals some cheap, fast, convenient ways of talking with one another,
these young people could organize a small war quite splendidly without
necessarily consulting their elders... The results were miraculous.
Corporals made strategy on the fly just by talking to other corporals and
not relying on the hierarchy.
"The quicker you make decisions, the more power you have."
The references are:
Article 1:
Point Men for a Revolution
Can the Marines Survive a Shift From Hierarchies to Networks?
By Joel Garreau
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 6, 1999; Page A01
Article 2:
REBOOT CAMP: As War Looms, the Marines Test New Networks of Comrades
By Joel Garreau
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 24, 1999; Page C01
Bob Payne
Project Engineer
Northrop Grumman, ACS
BA13/4B, Tel: (805) 272-8561
--"Payne, Robert E" <paynero2@mail.northgrum.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>