NCI Organization and Style - Democracy
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:16 am
I thought I'd put this in a separate thread. Punish me if I deserve it. And if you dare.
I have heard a number of our members suggesting that NCI should be a democracy. I suppose that they mean our Directors should be elected, that all important issues should be voted on, and so on. I am not sure I have an opinion on whether that would be better or not. I'm going to comment here to the effect that democracy is not a requirement for an organization to be effective, and a good one to be in.
Most enterprises in RL are not democracies. Most corporations are run by officers who are hired or installed by the board of directors, and the board is made up of major stockholders and invited bigwigs. And RL enterprises like that can be quiet effective and wonderful places to work. My purpose here is to talk about how that is accomplished.
It is not accomplished by the top people telling everyone what's what and what to do. That way of management is over. It is very last century.
What top management teams do today are these things:
First, the top management create a vision of the organization, and they speak that vision every time they speak at all. This is not a one-way push, however. They are also skilled at listening to the people in the organization, who often have ideas and capabilities that can add profoundly to that vision. One well known example is 3M, which in its best days created outstanding products almost solely thought up by their people.
Second, top management authorize projects and delegate essentially full responsibility to the people chosen to do them (who are usually the people who propose the project). Top management do not do the projects, they cause them to be done.
Third, top management sets guidelines for success of the projects, puts someone in charge of them, and, usually, asks for frequent concrete observable demonstration of progress. The more frequent, and the more concrete, the better things go.
NCI is full of people who care, and who want to help get things done. I'm hoping that our top management will help us help NCI.
I have heard a number of our members suggesting that NCI should be a democracy. I suppose that they mean our Directors should be elected, that all important issues should be voted on, and so on. I am not sure I have an opinion on whether that would be better or not. I'm going to comment here to the effect that democracy is not a requirement for an organization to be effective, and a good one to be in.
Most enterprises in RL are not democracies. Most corporations are run by officers who are hired or installed by the board of directors, and the board is made up of major stockholders and invited bigwigs. And RL enterprises like that can be quiet effective and wonderful places to work. My purpose here is to talk about how that is accomplished.
It is not accomplished by the top people telling everyone what's what and what to do. That way of management is over. It is very last century.
What top management teams do today are these things:
First, the top management create a vision of the organization, and they speak that vision every time they speak at all. This is not a one-way push, however. They are also skilled at listening to the people in the organization, who often have ideas and capabilities that can add profoundly to that vision. One well known example is 3M, which in its best days created outstanding products almost solely thought up by their people.
Second, top management authorize projects and delegate essentially full responsibility to the people chosen to do them (who are usually the people who propose the project). Top management do not do the projects, they cause them to be done.
Third, top management sets guidelines for success of the projects, puts someone in charge of them, and, usually, asks for frequent concrete observable demonstration of progress. The more frequent, and the more concrete, the better things go.
NCI is full of people who care, and who want to help get things done. I'm hoping that our top management will help us help NCI.