The Web of Inclusion: Architecture for Building Great Organizations
by Sally Helgesen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sally HelgesenEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-12-01
ISBN: 1587982773
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Beard Books
Book Reviews of The Web of Inclusion: Architecture for Building Great Organizations
Book Review: Worthy Reprint of 1996 Edition--Vitally Important
Summary: 5 Stars
This wonderful book spans varied literatures including complexity science, organizational intelligence, wealth of networks, and the value of diversity. See also my review of The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies.
Early note: Web of inclusion is natural adaptation and resilience in the face of the blurring of the lines among organizations and their traditional functions (e.g. governments, corporations, non-profits) *and* the collapse of pyramidal organizations no longer suited for operating in high-speed complex environments.
The book is organized into five early to digest pieces:
1) Marketing
2) Diversity
3) Front lines (Rommel's genius was in understanding that the Corporal at the very front who sees a "gap" in enemy lines that can be exploited, is priceless, and should be given virtual command of the platoon, company, battalion, and even division behind him, as he leads a penetration of that priceless gap that allows flanking of the enemy). I emphasize this because this is the difference between failed top-down "command and control" organizations including our failed two-party spoils system, and the new diverse bottom-up "collective intelligence" wealth of networks form of organization and decision-making.
4) Training endemic and continuous.
5) Outside alliances at least as important if not more important than internal organization (all of the Presidential candidates are failing here, but Barack Obama especially so--Naderites, Reagan Republicans, and True Conservatives have been offering to endorse him on New Year's Eve in Iowa and his national and state staffs are literally (I went to Des Moines personally to put a human face on this incompetence) blowing everyone off and focusing ONLY on the door to door tactics, a reprise of the Dean campaigns' implosion).
The author adds meat to a clearly understood emerging trend in discussing how existing and emerging information and communication technologies are inherently and profoundly anti-bureaucratic and democratizing.
The author cites the Toffler's whose pioneering works include Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Power at the Edge of the 21st Century andthe more recent Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives in discussing how networks not only make possible, but DEMAND and MAKE HAPPEN a redistribution of power (from centralized to decentralized).
There is a lovely section of the book on how the Village Voice, a globally respected neighborhood publication was made that way by a man who emphasized listening and asking the right question, over heirarchy and defined functions. INCLUSION was a deliberate strategy.
There is a fine section on how women organize as circles, while men prefer pyramids. I have been saying for years that women make better intelligence analysts because they have smaller egos and higher social IQs than men.
Although biomimicry is not mentioned, there is an excellent section onf self-organization, and I am reminded of Margaret Wheatley, who tells us in Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World that we should forget about mass and focus on connectivity.
The author notes that quantum (spaces between are defining) patterns have replaced either/or things.
The web of inclusion is constantly evolving and never static.
Pyramidal structures channel information up and down, not sideways (and never in-out).
Web of inclusion is a process with six features:
1) Open
2) Design & execution are intertwined and constant
3) Redistributes power
4) Constant reorganization (adaptation, resilience, innovation)
5) Embrace external instead of shutting it out
6) Trial & error rather than zero tolerance leads to improvisation on steroids.
The concluding section was somewhat disappointing and bland, but the merit of this work is sufficient to overlook that.
This is an important book that Barack Obama needs to read (he won't, he is zoned out and his staff is totally clueless about this kind of stuff). The Republic needs transpartisan moral leaders in both government and industry, and while Dee Hock and John Bogle get it, it may be too late to save the November 2008 election from being anything more than a content between losers who are locked in the old top down pyramidal winner take all shut out diversity spoils system.
This give give me hope--the lack of understanding of this book by people that matter in politics and commerce continues my despair.
See also:
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
Summary of The Web of Inclusion: Architecture for Building Great Organizations
"Web of inclusion" is used to describe integrated and organic organizations that become effective because management puts itself at the center rather than at the top.Leadership Books
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