[Sigia-l] Re: Large Orgs

[Sean Lawrence]

> Is it that they inhibit flexibility, communication, individual innovation,
> and insight - or is it that larger organizations and larger teams simply
> require a greater level of compromise between team members and between
> employees and management?

Perhaps it's that due to an effort to compromise (which I see missing even
in mid-sized orgs), they inhibit the above.

> In addition - isn't it also about patience?  If a person is unwilling to
> compromise and balks at the notion of having to work patiently within a
> system then are they really cut out to work in large organizations?

We're working at internet pace now!  You move or you lose.  And, as I said,
you either get used to it or leave.

> Large corporation function best when they can have a much more predictable
> (read dependable) course of business.  Their mass gives them power.  Their
> power comes from constancy.  A wave rider or jet ski can turn on a dime
> but it can't haul millions of gallons of crude like a supertanker can. The
> kind of flexibility of operation that the rider on a jet ski enjoys will
> not work to pilot the supertanker.

I think small companies are equally dependent on consistency.

> I yearn for the days I worked in a small shop where we could change the
> way we worked in a single meeting and each employee did whatever their
> skills allowed but if that culture were transferred to my current employer
> the ensuing chaos would cause the entire enterprise to grind to a halt.

I think that is due more to a lack of imagination on managements part than
an inherent trait of large orgs.  It certainly might be true of your current
employer and a more flexible org wouldn't work in many sectors but this is
the type of business not the inherent nature of large organizations.