Theoretical background of organization

What is an ORGANIZATION?

One thing is certain, an organization is NOT a THING or an OBJECT such as a rock or a car. One doesn’t build an organization like a car. An organization doesn’t run like a car, responding to commands and behaving deterministically in its environment. The blueprint is NOT everything! Let’s depart from the engineering paradigm. Let’s also depart form command-and-control paradigm. Ultimately, we must seriously take into consideration the human factor.

An organization has a function, a purpose. In our case, a Discovery Network processes new ideas, designs new products, and commercializes these products in a NEW way.

An organization is composed of actors, which are individuals or groups responding to a script, or writing scripts. In other words, these entities act following a plan, or act to improve the plan. But let’s not forget that ultimately any actor relies on flesh and bones, therefore there are psychological and social factors to take into account. More on this to come!

An organization is a more or less a coherent system of processes that are designed to fulfill a general goal. These processes rely, as much as possible, on scripts or on a program. A script is never a perfect one, because it is enacted in an open context. Reality is diverse, chaotic, unpredictable, therefore the script is only a guide. As opposed to a machine, in which case every part follows very precisely the rules of its functioning, an actor responding to a script must retain its capacity to adapt the rules/program to match a specific context, while trying to achieve the general goal.    

The boundaries of an organization of any type are NOT well defined, and they are dynamic. The primary reason is that organizations are ultimately made of humans, who are simultaneously actors in other organizations and through which exchanges take place between one particular organization and others. The type of organization we are building is characterized by a very elusive boundary, and this can be a very important advantage in some contexts. Therefore, we need to carefully adjust the structure in order to insure that this inherent high-rate exchange with the exterior becomes beneficial and works to reinforce the organization, not to weaken it. 

Back to the HUMAN FACTOR

The VITALITY problem

When you build a car, every piece you put in will play its role within the system according to its design. A mechanical piece doesn’t have free will, it cannot decide. Moreover, the piece doesn’t have moods. It will perform the same way every time you turn on the engine. Humans have moods, needs, the ability to say “no”, etc. An organization is not just the blueprint. We need to factor this in. To better fix this idea let me give you an example. You cannot build a habitation, with spaces for interaction, play, etc., and expect to obtain a vibrant community within its walls. Even if you include in the design all the features that encourage socialization and constructive exchange, this alone will not guarantee the emergence of a vibrant community. You need an ANIMATOR! A person that gives it ANIMA = SOUL. You need someone, a human being, that has the skills to inject vitality into the group of people that will populate the building, in order to make the group coalesce into a community. The animator will use narratives and rituals to make this happen.

The Internet makes possible the emergence of successful organizations deprived of animators. This is a new phenomenon that emerges at a very large scale, like in Wikipedia and Linux for example, I’ll develop this subject in another document. A Discovery Network is an open network spanning the globe, but the creative activities happen within mid-size groups, not large enough to nullify the role of the animator.  

MOTIVATION

A good animator can never vitalize a group if there are not powerful incentives. The organization must offer value to all the actors taking part in it. Moreover, it is not enough for the incentives to be there, they must also be very well communicated and understood by all the actors. Motivation arises from the perception one has that something has value. We need to do a perfect job in laying down clearly all the advantages our organization offers to every type of actor, taking into consideration they specific needs, and we need to communicate it very well. 

UNDERSTANDING

Understanding enters at every level of the organization, because humans are not merely mechanical pieces, their actions at every level will depend on the level of understanding. For this reason, formalization/codification and communication are very important. But there is one specific level on which I find important to focus, the script. In order to obtain a functioning organization, actors must understand the script. They must know what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and when it is time to finish what needs to be done. The script is the formal part of the organization, the representation component. After having somewhat refined our concepts, we now need to formalize, to codify! We need to write the script in a way to make it understandable by every actor, and to communicate it effectively. Otherwise people will not know what to do, and the contribution to the group will drop. Moreover, everyone part of the group needs to see beyond the script, to understand the end goals, and how the script helps the group to reach this goal. 

Other reads: Online collaboration doesn’t happen by magic