Day #89

Hierarchy

One aspect of hierarchy is illogical: it’s rigidity. What are the odds that we have invented the correct structure to suit every occasion? By nailing people in place within a rigid structure, we may end up with the wrong people in the wrong place for the challenge at hand.

But hierarchy is not simply a question of organisation - it’s also a structure of power and, typically, reward. The higher up you are, the more power you have, and the more you are worth. So it’s difficult for people at the top to consider more flexible, or contextual models.

Look at your group of friends: chances are that if you ever need help with something - to mend your boiler, to help out in the garden, to advise you on a career move, you can find that person. But you do so through an understanding of individual ability, not through a formal structure. You are unlikely to have formally invited one person to be ‘career guide’, because the type of advice you need may inform where you turn.

Use your sixty seconds today to think about the hierarchy you are part of, and to ask whether it always has the right ‘person’ in the right ‘place’. Do good ideas always come from the top?

It’s not hard to conceive more fluid models, but it’s very had to imagine how we would implement them.