Hierarchic Community Governance
Developmental Learning Communities (DDLCs) are learning organizations that are designed to embody their essence, structured to develop their members, and governed rather than managed. A fundamental design criterion at the companies we’ve worked with has been that, ultimately, people direct their own work at every level. This means they aren’t “supervised” or “managed”, or even “led.” We’ve come up with a hybrid: hierarchical-community governance structure: we’re using councils, putting people into decision-making learning communities within the organization. There they ask each other “what shall we do?”
Developmental Learning Communities (DDLCs) are learning organizations that are designed to embody their essence, structured to develop their members, and governed rather than managed. A fundamental design criterion at the companies we’ve worked with has been that, ultimately, people direct their own work at every level. This means they aren’t “supervised” or “managed”, or even “led.” We’ve come up with a hybrid: hierarchical-community governance structure: we’re using councils, putting people into decision-making learning communities within the organization. There they ask each other “what shall we do?”
Power Shifts
As increased knowledge and capacity are valued at every level in the organization, assumptions of hierarchical leadership begin to weaken. Managers learn how to facilitate and share decision-making processes. Workers learn what their part is in the larger enterprise and how to teach others what they do. Authentic community, an essential condition for effective learning, begins to be the norm, and people begin to “own” the consequences of their actions – leading to higher quality contributions at every level as the emerging paradigm of learning in communities with high performance standards leads to a systematic shift toward alignment and accountability.
The result is that power begins to be distributed among groups and communities rather than deferred to upper management, thus enabling upper managers to focus on their own individual and organizational development tasks. The role of senior management begins to shift from telling others what to do and how to do it, to aligning with and maintaining an enterprise-wide focus on the Operating Philosophy – clarifying for others and aligning with the purpose, core values, axioms, and principles that define the organization.
The result is that power begins to be distributed among groups and communities rather than deferred to upper management, thus enabling upper managers to focus on their own individual and organizational development tasks. The role of senior management begins to shift from telling others what to do and how to do it, to aligning with and maintaining an enterprise-wide focus on the Operating Philosophy – clarifying for others and aligning with the purpose, core values, axioms, and principles that define the organization.