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Reinvent the means of control

“We need control systems that shape rather than stifle human contribution.”

Traditional control systems ensure high levels of compliance but do so at the expense of employee creativity, entrepreneurship, and engagement. To overcome the discipline-versus-innovation trade-off, tomorrow’s control systems will need to rely more on peer review and less on top-down supervision. They must leverage the power of shared values and aspirations while loosening the straitjacket of rules and strictures. The goal: organizations filled with people whose motivation and discipline comes from within.

61 Stories
205 Hacks
11 Barriers

Reinvent the means of control

“We need control systems that shape rather than stifle human contribution.”

Traditional control systems ensure high levels of compliance but do so at the expense of employee creativity, entrepreneurship, and engagement. To overcome the discipline-versus-innovation trade-off, tomorrow’s control systems will need to rely more on peer review and less on top-down supervision. They must leverage the power of shared values and aspirations while loosening the straitjacket of rules and strictures. The goal: organizations filled with people whose motivation and discipline comes from within.

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Federated Decision Making is fundamentally about a trade -- one group asks another to vote on whether to expend resources to meet a member's need.
Story by Roy Zuniga on July 17, 2011
A well-known consulting firm in urban and rural planning was losing momentum as many of its consultants were approaching retirement. Based on a tailored customer survey, ValueMetrix provided the
Story by Anders Magnusson on October 6, 2010
Development of a transparent employment process that results in not only the best person for the position being appointed but also keeps that person by making the company accountable for all promises
Hack by Andre Basel on February 28, 2011
 The first line manager’s responsibility is to keep a positive atmosphere in their work group. There is a saying that people do things for their reasons not yours.
Story by Jim McGriff, Jr. on December 1, 2015
Leading by letting go addresses a fundamental mismatch of traditional vertical leadership approaches with the needs of knowledge workers who tend to ignore corporate hierarchy and need autonomy to unl
Hack by Vlatka Hlupic on April 26, 2012
We pay lip-service to the importance of many types of capital (i.e., human-, intellectual-, social-, natural- and even spiritual-capital), but our companies are still explicitly and legally designed f
Hack by Randal Franz on December 22, 2011
We have structured elaborate change management plans and programs, housed in HR that have, in effect, taken away the responsibility of managing from the line managers.
Hack by john sigmon on November 2, 2014
Most companies have internal employee portals - the ones where all employees are expected to or voluntarily sign in everyday.
Hack by Joel Modestus on July 14, 2013
Not new, but simple, cost-effective, underutilized.  Spans industries, levels of work, sectors.  Think "sandbox" (nod to former mentor): Within clear constraints of quality, quantity, time,
Hack by Mary Ann Lesperance on December 4, 2013
The FreeSpeak system is a simple but powerful method to force the organization to self-improve and become more competitive while eliminating reliance on management.
Hack by Matt Shlosberg on June 13, 2010

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