Knowledge workers are an investment rather than an expense. They not only desire considerable personal autonomy but also the responsibility and accountability for running at least some part of an organization. They need to be treated as partners or associates and not as typical Industrial Age employees.

I have often felt this. It’s part of why I work freelance. He goes on:

… the more people are given a voice and implicit control in managing a venture, the more the informal networks (present in every entity) will begin to function more in the open and start making appropriate connections with other emergent groups.

Ehin talks about the importance of tacit knowledge. How it’s difficult to access, share, and transfer to others without extensive personal contact and trust. How it’s based on habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves. And, most interestingly, how it emerges serendipitously as individuals or small groups confront new or unanticipated situations.

“People must first be surrounded by a supportive environment,” he writes. This is what I’ve been thinking too. This is why building connections and community within the organization matters so much. Why getting internal communications right matters so much. We not only have to do our work — we need to take time every once and a while to reflect on how we’re doing it. Especially in an ever-changing environment.

Ehin’s “organizational sweet spot” represents “the area where the formal and informal systems of an organization have reached “a meeting of the minds” over the fundamental goals, policies and processes of an organization. …What can be managed or adjusted is the organizational context or ecology that surrounds the sweet spot.” Makes me think of the New Institutional Economics. Incentives matter. Institutions matter. Especially the informal ones. Systems, culture, the framework in which we operate.

He goes on to outline two categories of organizational ecologies. I’m paraphrasing here:

• Controlled-Access System — Access to the resources of a group and its activities are controlled by one or a few select individuals. All other members of the organization must first get approval from these executives before any of the assets can be used. Compliance instead of commitment is prized.
• Shared-Access System — The resources of a group and its activities are dealt with by all members of an organization. All organizational members have considerable autonomy in decision-making and in resource allocations. Expert power instead of position power dominates. Emphasis is placed on situational leadership, open book management, and self-organization in solving problems or pursuing opportunities (read: “open organization”).

This example really hit home: “I would like to download a free Web resource which will help me perform my job better, but the IT Department will not allow me to do that.”

Oh boy. That is me. I did it anyway. Sorry about that IT dudes ;)