Over-Centralized Power / Decentralized Consequence

A old friend Brian Spear once said the phrase: “Hierarchies lead to chaos. And they are the only way out when things are chaotic.” In this simple statement he conveyed so much. Knowing how to use power effectively.

Power is taken. Power is given (up). This is how power becomes too centralized. Yet consequence is often decentralized. Felt by the team, the community and sometimes nations and globally.

The important thing to remember is that we lose our redundancies when we let power become too centralized. Situations become fundamentally more hazardous because centralized systems are terrible at finding problems.

We understand that better decisions are made with a group of people exchanging ideas. We also understand that direction is needed for creating solutions. Yet we still default to centralized power systems leaving big blind spots.

Each person in a system needs to exercise their power to keep the system’s integrity. Engineers must never compromise their work, otherwise they are engineers only by name. Line workers need to strive to obtain the best possible materials and processes by claiming their voice and listen to other team members.

Over centralized systems are fragile. Leaders . . . learn to listen, inquire and empower others with the goal of full participation in the systems, processes and products that are developed. Create solutions for complex problems.

Lets be careful not to put too much power in the hands very few frail human beings. Lets also not claim too much power for ourselves, only to have it lead to poor decisions and the suffering of people we have never met.