<blockquote><p>I'm excerpting this on the 6th: <a href="http://bobcannell.blogspot.com/2010/10/break-free-from-our-systems-prison.html">http://bobcannell.blogspot.com/2010/10/break-free-from-our-systems-prison.html</a><br>
</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>all major management schools are based on the idea of
organisations being systems. From 1920s scientific management to 2000s
complexity edge of chaos ideas. Systems thinking requires a separation
between controlled and controllers even if they are the same people</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://bobcannell.blogspot.com/2010/10/break-free-from-our-systems-prison.html">Excerpted</a>
from <strong>Bob Cannell</strong>:</p>
<p><em>�As a worker cooperator I have struggled for years to use
�normal� management techniques in worker co-ops. Often they don�t work.
Members don�t like them even when they have agreed a business plan, they
feel oppressed and trapped by their own agreements.</em></p>
<p><em>The biggest problem has been strategic development. While
�normal� operational (next week) and tactical (next year) management
�best practices� are ok, I have never seen or experienced a �normal�
strategic development method being successful in a worker co-op in the
UK. After several years of searching I think I may have found the
reason. �Normal� management methods are fundamentally unsuited to our
open, egalitarian cultures. Indeed at their core, they are designed to
suppress workers and privilege the vested interests of their
controllers. So, you say, we knew that, but the depth of this ideology
is the surprise.</em></p>
<p><em>Ralph D Stacey of the University of Herfordshire claims that all
major management schools are based on the idea of organisations being
systems. From 1920s scientific management to 2000s complexity edge of
chaos ideas. Systems thinking requires a separation between controlled
and controllers even if they are the same people (hence the bizarre
feeling of being oppressed by your own business plan).</em></p>
<p><em>This idea is revolutionary. Furthermore the IT revolution is
driving changes in business which are making systems based management
methods unworkable anywhere. We are being pushed towards Stacey�s
alternative; to understand organisations as complex processes of
relationships and communications between people, with little opportunity
for prescriptive planning and executive control.</em></p>
<p><em>The picture of this �Complex Responsive Process� thinking in
practice is much more sympathetic to collectively organised worker
co-ops and other egalitarian workplaces. It encourages a much more
co-operative way of organising and operating businesses which we can use
much more easily than our investor owned or executive controlled
competition.</em></p>
<p><em>What do we do? Stop trying to stuff worker co-ops into systems
control and start to take advantage of the liberation of process
thinking.� </em></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a>� - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br>
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