It is the time for “the flock of birds management”

I would like to start clarifying that what you are about to read is going to seem quite annoying. It should be in that way because it is a breakdown. It changes the way of thinking, and maybe it makes no sense for you at the moment. Take your time and it will.

What I would like to talk about is what I think it is the organization of the future: It is called the flock of birds organization. It came to my mind when I read the book, “The wisdom of crowds” by James Surowiecki. Let me give you a short overview:
“A flock of birds breaks up, re-forms, breaks up, re-forms… its motion creating an indecipherable but beautiful pattern. In the process, the hawk becomes disoriented, since no individual starling ever stays in the same place, even though the flock as a whole is never divided for long.

From the outside, the flock´s movements appear to be the result of the workings of one mind, guiding the flock to protect itself. At the very least, the starlings appear to be acting in concert with each other, pursuing an agreed-upon strategy that gives each of them a better chance to survive. But neither of these is true. Each starling is acting on its own, following four rules:

1) stay as close to the middle as possible
2) stay two to thre body lengths away from your neighbor
3) Do not bump into any other starling
4) If a Hawk dives at you, get out of the way
No starling knows what the other birds are going to do. No starling can command another bird to do anything. The rules alone allow the flock to keep moving in the right direction, to resist predators and to regroup when divided.

It is safe to say that anyone who is interested in group behavior is enamored of flocking birds. A flock is a wonderful example of a social organization that accomplishes its goals and solves problems in a bottom up fashion, without leaders and without having to follow complex algorithms or complicated rules. Watching a flock move through the air, you get a sense of what the economist Friedrich Hayek liked to term “Spontaneus order”. It´s a biologically programmed spontaneity – starlings don´t decide to follow these rules, they just do. But it is spontaneity for all that. No plans are made. The flock just moves.”

In my opinion, this is the perfect organization for the times we live in. My father used to say when I was young “Look at the birds, they do not cultivate anything and they eat every day”, the answer was there, but I could not see it. Maybe you still can´t, but I ensure you will start understanding what I am talking about.

First. Why should anyone always lead?

Nowadays, companies have CEOs. They are always the same people.  Sometimes they have brilliant minds that have an outstanding way of look at the world, sometimes they don´t. The real question here is: Should be the leadership determined in advance? In my opinion, leadership emerges in critical situations (Usually umpleasant situations), when decisions have to be made. Should always the same person take that decision? I don´t think so. I believe in an organization where the leadership is demonstrated instead of being determined. Imagine again the flock of birds. Is the first bird always the same bird? Wouldn´t be better to lead sometimes, and let others lead in other occasions?

Second. Are we prepared for being birds?

It is ironic. I am writing this post while flying from Madrid to Mexico. Today we live in a world where we can work anywhere, anytime. The most efficient way to distribute work is working when you are ready for it. Say goodbye to work from 9 to 5. Who cares when you work? the only premise is that you have to finish your work on time for others. I don´t care where or when you did it. So please don´t feel bad if you don´t go to the office 3 days in a row if you feel that you are being more productive at home. Now we have the tools to work while visiting Hong Kong, taking care of your children, or your grandparents. Being able to maximize your personal life gives you the power to be more productive for your work.

Third. Will people cheat on me?

Results will tell you. If you did not report on time, you failed. If you outperform the market, you did it great. What managers should focus on, instead of controlling the behavior, the time or the place, should be the productivity. “He never comes to the office, but he sells every single product we have” I would love to hear that. “I don´t know how is he doing that, but our system is more efficent, more robust, and the errors are lower than ever”. You are right, it doesn´t matter how is he doing it, but it does. As the birds, we always need our nest where we collaborate with others. But we need to be alone if we want to fly. Offices should be meeting points, instead of staying points.

Four. Don´t work for the enterprise, work for your enterprise.

There is something that I do not understand. Why should we work for others? Yeah it is right. For money. Ok but let´s give a second thought. Would we work with the same intensity, with the same passion, if it was your company? I am sure that your response is NO. Then, why not, for the benefit of everybody in the company, be one of the owners of the company? I know that it seems to be ridiculous, but think about it. What if every single worker had a fraction of the company? That would change the sentence “I work for ______” to ” I work in my ______ “. The results would be amazing. I am sure.

Five. Should we choose in what we want to work?

Of course. I think it is overwhelming how we dismiss such a talented people just because he or she is not prepared, or because somebody thinks that he or she doesn´t fit the job. Why dont we hire people because of they are extremely talented, and let them choose which projects are the ones that they are excited with? Wouldn´t be more productive? I know that we have built some rules during the last century, and I am questioning the system that worked for more than two hundred years. But I think it is time to question everything.

Trying to reach conclussions: I believe that you should work always in something that is exciting for you, where and when you want. And you have to be part of it, you must be the owner. The way of organizing work should be based in objectives, deadlines and results. But those objectives should not be determined by one person, but by the leader of each project the company has. That would make everything more engaging, fulfilling, and fun.

Why Top-to-down business is not working anymore?

Is it me or it feels like something is wrong when you buy a book in a physical bookstore? Why should I watch that horrible programs broadcasted on the TV for mediocre minds when I can  watch whatever I want on Youtube? If you have not asked that questions yet, maybe it´s time to do it. Because all these questions that deal with the Internet world as a substitute to some traditional products and services are changing behaviors, then societies and, after all, economies.

I am not the first saying that everything has changed. Don Tapscott said it in his brilliant book called “wikinomics” in 2006, where he anticipated the breakdown of the traditional companies if they don´t adapt their business strategies to the new economic scenario. Why should I watch TV news when all I need is to have a look in twitter to know what is happening?  Inmediate networked services are winning the battle of the audiences, and why is that? Is the same reason as always: when you can have it now, cheap an easy. Then you´ve got a winner.

And who is suffering all that change? The companies who still keep approaching their business in a Top to down approach (WE design a product, WE protect it from our competitors, WE send our message to the targeted people, WE sell it in a propietary way, WE dont have to ask the client if he is satisfied, WE are leaders, big and…dead). And, on the other hand, businesses, public institutions and organizations that change their mind and start working FOR their prosumers (producers & consumers) are experiencing higher growth rates than ever. It is as easy as finding the community you want to talk with, giving them the conversation they need to have, and finally, produce for them the products that nobody is giving them because they are not being heard.

The times when big companies enforced clients to buy their products ” in their way” finished long time ago. Now you have to adapt your business to the people. You have to listen to them, talk to them, study what are their needs, and build a product specifically designed to satisfy them at this moment. It has to be fast, it has to be smart (because if you don´t do it now, tomorrow you will have a competitor somewhere over the world), and it has to be sincere. Now doing business is the nearest thing to have a relationship: if you cheat your customer, there is not a second chance. The magic is gone.

If you want to think about that issues, please have a look to the following video:

European Entrepreneurship Video Awards

As the video says, The world is what you make of it. Just wanted to share the video with all of you, just in case somebody wants to participate. Good luck!

Getting to know the Long Tail concept, by Chris Anderson

I have to say that I starting to become really interested in the new economic concepts that rule the network economy that we have reached in the 21st century. One of the most amazing concepts I have learnt during the last months is the “Long tail”. Introduced in 2006 by Chris Anderson, The “Long tail” give us the advice that in every industry, in all markets, there are always some “Hits” (The famous movies, the most played songs, the most glamorous top models…) BUT there are also always many more “Non hits” that become a big market when you put all of them together. The key is that for years, we have always focussed on the “Head” of that long tail, because we only had few TV channels, radios, magazines…but now everything is different. Now we dont see so much TV, we hear the music on Spotify, jumping from one artist to another, just following comments and ratings…and it really doesn´t matter what MTV says about it. We now see on the internet contents that maybe are not as popular as the greatest hits, contents that would not be available for us 15 years ago. And if we sum all that unusual contents they have a higher demmand than the few greatest hits. And that changes everything.

Think about some of the brighest business of the last 10 years: Amazon is the long tail of books, where obviously you can find the “best sellers”, but where you usually find the specific books that are not usually in your local bookstore. Itunes is the long tail of music, where you can download any track between Bob Marley to the starting group of Colorado that you love, because your friends are the performers. Google is the long tail of advertising, Ebay is the long tail of second hand objects, Social Networks are the long tail of media…Everything on the internet is scattering, and businesses that find the appropriate long tail, are the ones that are making money out of it.

The 4 Hour Workweek! Is it possible?

Tim Ferris, the author of “The 4 hour workweek” summarizes in this video  the principles to get what he has achieved: The 4 hour workweek. These days with emails, blackberrys, sms, cell phones…is it possible? Well, when you hear him it really makes sense. Congratulations to him! I will definitely read his book. Thanks to Diana Carrasco for the information about this author!