Thursday, February 2, 2017

The Changing Nature of Work and Leading in a Wirearchy

It's no secret that the Internet and technological growth have changed the nature of how people interact with knowledge. This shift in knowledge and knowledge management (as discussed in last weeks blog post) can even been argued to have changed how people think. Due to the web's nature and shape, hyperlink thinking as Weinberger (2011) described it, has changed information from being presented in a long form. He expands upon this idea in his book Too Big to Know, when discussing how long form knowledge was adopted to present information and make arguments based on having to work with a medium such as books, something that is no longer true today with the Internet (Weinberger, 2011). In addition to changing how people think, technology has also changed the way that people have begun working in dramatic ways; individually, in teams, and in organizations. Husband (2017) has developed a paradigm to explain the new way this work is structured, wirearchy.

Wirearchy can be described as "a dynamic two-way flow of  power and authority, based on knowledge, trust, credibility and a focus on results, enabled by interconnected people and technology" (Husband, 2017). My direct experience in a wirearchy is limited. That is in due largely in part because the military is, and in my opinion will continue to be for a long time, much closer to a traditional hierarchy in terms of both power and authority. I have, however, noticed the role technology has played in interconnecting people, a huge boast to an enterprise as complex and global as the military. And while still very traditional in many ways, the military is not immune to the very real changes that are occurring to other workplaces in the 21st century.

Workplace changes such as working in swarms and working with the collective, both changes that are described by Gartner in 2010, are also happening in the military despite the somewhat rigid hierarchy that exists. The fact is the military has always been a unique workplace environment, which in turn causes unique leadership challenges. However, leading in a hybrid wirearchy and traditional hierarchy will share some commonalities and Husband's (2017) core competencies of knowledge, trust, credibility and a results based focus are fairly universal.

One thing that I did note in Fast Company's Top 5 Workplace Trends for 2017 article was prediction regarding the changing role of HR and analytics in recruiting and engagement. In early 2017, I took over a new role in my job and one of my duties is similar in nature to HR. I am recruiting/managing a small group of potential instructors to mentor for more advanced training opportunities later in their careers. Already I have begun to create a baseline of analytics to help form the program's methodology and evaluate its success. So in a way, that trend has already affected my workplace in 2017.

References:

Dishman, L. (2016, 15 Dec). These are the top 5 workplace trends we'll see in 2017. Fast Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3066605/the-future-of-work/these-are-the-top-5-workplace-trends-well-see-in-2017.

Goadsduff, L. (2010, 4 Aug). Gartner says the world of work will witness 10 changes during the next 10 years. Gartner: Stamford, CT. Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1416513.

Husband, J. (2017). What is wirearchy?. Retrieved from http://wirearchy.com/what-is-wirearchy/.

Weinberger, D. (2011). Too big to know: Rethinking knowledge now that the facts aren't the facts, experts are everywhere, and the smartest person in the room is the room. New York, NY: Basic Books.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting post, Chris. I would agree that the military for the most part remains hierarchical, with an implicit chain of command. Yet, even within the military, there has been a push to empower people at the lowest level, whether that means sending a ship over the horizon into uncertain waters or relying on a small Marine Corps rifle squad to check out a village and return...leadership is pushed down.

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  2. Chris:
    I had not even considered the military in terms of a traditionally hierarchical structure. This approach probably makes the most since when national security and individual safety could be comprised by employing a more wirearchy approach. With that said, I have been impressed with how the military has embraced social media for communicating both internally and with the public (http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/u-s-army-leaders-embrace-social-media/). That seems to be a big step for organizations that are full of tradition. Would the use of two-way communication tools get the military closer to operating like a wirearchy in your opinion?

    Thanks-Krista

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