Leading-edge business thinker Philip Evans has pointed out that organizations like Linux and Toyota are self-organizing networks in which the overall intent is shared without being laid down. Linux has no single leader. Self-organizing networks have all the characteristics we have observed to be cornerstones of directed opportunism: a lot of people taking independent decisions on the basis of a shared intent and high mutual trust. The strong connection between the top and bottom of a hierarchy created by a briefing cascade is replaced by a strong network with widely dispersed knowledge and
...more