Alex Wright


Power to the edge

September 15, 2003

Ray Ozzie points out Power to the Edge, a new book about the effects of peer-to-peer communications on large organizations.

Open-sourced in its entirety, this insightful, forward-looking piece of analysis comes from a surprising source: The Department of Defense.

From chapter 1:

Power to the edge is about changing the way individuals, organizations and systems relate to one another and work. Power to the edge involves the empowerment of individuals at the edge of an organization (where the organization interacts with its operating environment)...

Moving power to the edge implies adoption of an "edge organization," with greatly enhanced peer-to-peer interactions. Edge organizations also move senior personnel into roles that place them at the edge. They often reduce the need for middle managers whose role is to manage constraints and control measures. Command and control become unbundled.
I will resist the urge to come up with a snide joke about unbundling control from the Commander-in-Chief.


File under: User Experience

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