Today's Environment Tapping the "Mother Lode"

Figure 1: Dynamics of Human Behavior Figure 2: Filling the Gap

Certainly, businesses have become less bureaucratic in the last few decades. However, the efforts made to empower individuals and teams at all levels of organizations, to say the least, has been dismal. By and large, most members of firms remain disenfranchised. Thus, unsurprisingly, workers (especially knowledge workers) feel alienated from their organizations thereby causing their efforts to be limited by distrust and cynicism.

Central to the problem is the lack of models other than the standard prototypes for command-and-control systems. Unfortunately, the generation of knowledge is particularly dependent on voluntary collaboration and self-determination, foreign to the Industrial Age management mind-set and structures. Consequently, companies still have no comprehensive working models to follow for implementing “truly democratic” or self-organizing systems (not to be confused with the assortment of “flat” hierarchies currently being promoted) needed to increase the innovative capacities, entrepreneurial thinking, productivity, and commitment of knowledge professionals or, for that matter, workers in general.

I have developed precisely such a fundamental template. As a result, my primary focus is on informal or emergent social networks where, ironically, most of the work in organizations is accomplished in the first place. These invisible self-organizing systems are present in all social entities. For that reason, I have designed a comprehensive framework that includes an array of integrated models showing how to support (as opposed to manage) these informal networks so that they will voluntarily unleash their tremendous energy and creativity in support of the formal goals and objectives of an enterprise.

Further, information technology and its by-product, the virtual organization, are indispensable tools for success in today’s information rich and rapidly changing environment. They provide the means for instant exchange of explicit knowledge around the world. However, these tools alone are of limited value for supporting the development of social capital and quarrying the tacit or undiscovered knowledge residing within every individual and informal group of an enterprise.

Consequently, organizations and individuals that want to prosper in the Knowledge Age must soon recognize that commitment (as opposed to compliance) and the sharing of ideas are dependent on the extraordinarily delicate balanced interface between the invisible dynamics of human nature enhanced by the appropriate use of information technology. Understanding how living systems function in response to their immediate environments will allow organizations to mine and leverage the hidden wealth that has been ignored for so long.

My principal center of attention is on demonstrating the remarkably close mutually supporting relationships between what I consider to be the three most decisive organizational success factors—informal self-organizing networks, social capital, and tacit knowledge. These emergent processes, instead of people strictly complying with official policies and directives, are the foundation for most work performed in our institutions. I estimate that the triad of unseen success factors is responsible for roughly two thirds of the effectiveness of any venture. Regrettably, these powerful invisible forces currently are not even partially tapped by most organizations.

In essence, I show how to fill the gap between management concepts based on the “visible” organizational elements such as structure, rewards, strategy, et cetera and the assortment of motivational theories requiring leaders to have a deep psychological awareness of each individual in order to motivate them to their best effort. For example, researchers have studied the concept of organizational “absorptive capability” (ACAP) for over a decade now. ACAP is defined “as a set of organizational routines and processes by which firms acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge to produce a dynamic organizational capability.” Social integration methods are a key component of ACAP yet, to my knowledge, no serious effort has been made to demonstrate to what extent self-organization, social capital, and tacit knowledge impact the process.

Figure 2 depicts the gap between the visible organizational components and recognized motivational schemes. In effect, ignoring or not knowing how to leverage (as opposed to control or manage) the three interdependent emergent forces creates a “choke point” hindering the possibility of attaining full benefits from the modifications made in the other two elements. That is precisely why most mergers and organizational change efforts fail to produce the desired outcomes in the long run.

What we continue to overlook is that humans (and all other living entities for that matter) have evolved to function quite well independently without superimposed structures and motivational systems. If that was not true our kind could not have survived as a species as long as we have. Thus, it is high time that we also begin to grasp and leverage the innate powers of human nature in our organizations instead of continuing to almost exclusively rely on top down control processes which, at best, generate compliance rather than commitment. It’s a costly neglect.

The triad of organizational success factors is an imperceptible resource that cannot be tracked in the traditional sense (it, for example, is not included in any of the standard financial statements) and, therefore, it remains largely untapped. Hence, it is not surprising that studies continue to validate that about 80 percent of all mergers fail to create the expected benefits anticipated; that most change efforts fall short of their targets; that some individuals can perform at 20 to 30 percent of their ability without losing their jobs; and that the average employee works only at two-thirds of his or her capacity.

That is a tremendous waste of human energy and novel ideas. Therefore, I offer the most comprehensive and practical framework to date for the development of “smart” organizations that can benefit from the invisible power and knowledge embedded within every enterprise. More than 70 years ago researchers “formally” identified the existence of emergent systems in our social institutions. It’s now high time that we put that knowledge to practical use.

The most productive applications of my practical framework apply to organizations primarily dependent on new innovative products and services. The general principles, however, are applicable to any social system. Nevertheless, new possibilities require new ways of thinking. Unfortunately, old mind sets and philosophies persist long after they cease to be productive. New ways of thinking do not just happen; they require new models which have to be learned and applied by visionary first adopters who, of course, also reap the highest returns in the long run.

My aim is to help people grasp the importance of understanding and applying the fundamental survival principles of living entities that cannot be circumvented no matter how we try. Rather than attempting to dodge these unmanageable dynamics that are part of every social entity or push them underground, we need to learn how to cultivate them openly. That is the only way we can realistically quarry the invisible wealth of organizations. More notably, self-organization, social capital, and tacit knowledge is not just about running private and public organizations but it is also about the very foundation of life itself.

What I have developed is not a prescriptive system where one size fits all because that is an impossible task when dealing with diverse groups of people. Every organization is unique in its make-up and operation. Rather, what I have created is a broad integrated framework founded on the latest research from multiple scientific fields. The principles I have delineated and integrated are grounded in common sense (which, unfortunately, is seldom very common) and practicality. Although I do not ignore information technology (IT) and its importance, my focus is primarily on self-organizing processes governed by unmanagement that must be well cultivated and appropriately supported before IT can be put to effective use.