Three cool ways to fight hierarchical risk

I’ve just come across an interesting book: The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win by Jeffrey Hollender and Bill Breen (Jossey-Bass, 2010). I will write more about it later. But one thing really struck me: how Linden Lab (the creator of Second Life) fights hierarchical risk in three ways:

Hierarchical risk #1: In a hierarchy, the lion’s share of recognition and recompense goes to the self-promoters and those who hold the biggest titles. The real heroes are left unsung, which suppresses people’s spirit and will—why work harder and risk more, they reason, when those who are most deserving go unrewarded?
Linden’s remedy: The community—not some select group of corporate overlords—does the rewarding.

Hierarchical risk #2: The big dogs at the sharp end of the pyramid wield the annual performance review as a way to preserve their power advantage:
Linden’s Remedy: Invite the community to review the big dogs (an approach also pioneered by Vineet Nayar at HCL)

Hierarchical risk #3: Managers define and assign tasks,with little or no input from those who must do the work.
Linden’s Remedy: Give people the freedom to design their own jobs.

Awesome!

Other measures are of course required to create a truly inspired workplace, but these three remedies are a good start. To read more on fighting hierarchy, go here.