Learning, helping and making a little money

nex·us 
   1. A means of connection; a link or tie.
   2. A connected series or group.
   3. The core or centre.

Imagine you were a part of a large fun group of people, say 800. The group has a minimum of structure. People simply do a good job. Nobody chases anybody. Everyone gets along.

You all worked together every day but at different locations and times. Your work is similar but not the same. Some of the group you see all the time, some very infrequently. Things happen. News travels. Rumours spread. Sometimes it's hard to discern fact from fiction.

It's easy to see how complex it is for quality information to propagate quickly. To improve the situation you might gather everyone together. This works fine but has the obvious overhead. You might consider introducing a hierarchy. This would not work at all.

So what can we do? How can we possibly solve this complex spaghetti communication problem? Well, we could do the same thing we always do for this type of anti-pattern. We could decentralise control.

Imagine a culture where people take responsibility for their own communication and quality of information. Every member of the group takes responsibility for regularly seeking out and exchanging quality information. Feedback. News. Gossip. Responsibility and control are disseminated. Quality information flows quickly and freely.

posted by ...  # 12:03 PM