Radical Management and the Peaceable Revolution

Nevertheless, teams never really entered the mainstream of management in the sense of being the default way of getting things done.  The default method remained hierarchical bureaucracy and managers controlling individuals.  Teams were a kind of stop-gap measure that you used when you couldn't solve a problem by normal command and control.  But when the problem was solved, you went back to normal management.

What's fascinating about the process Steve Denning describes is that it sounds an awful lot like Westminster government between Magna Carta and the Reformation.  Parliament was called periodically, but wasn't a permanently present entity - it was called only when it had to be.

As our system of government slides past its best-before date, all kinds of changes are necessary - and all of which will involve a certain level of empowerment and relationship-building with external entities.

That corporations might be now where government was then is pretty interesting, especially as there's a growing voice suggesting old-school capitalism is also past its best-before date.

Change is coming - like a snake shedding its skin, there will be some friction, but in the long run I believe we're going to see government becoming more of a coordination service, the private sector being more pro-social and investing in CSR partially as a way of gaining loyalty by filling the gap left by government.  

To complete the change, people are going to be more engaged - that is, more engaged themselves, but more invited to engage by the people at the top.

Such as is happening already with the Open Community.

It's easy to lose hope, but we're getting there.  Leadership is all about perseverance, after all - it's as true when the people are themselves the leaders.