The world is flat -- your company should be flatter

There I was, listening to a management guru talk about project management when he started jabbering about The World is Flat. He enunciated very clearly about outsourcing for several minutes; greeted by yawns he moved to another topic. Unfortunately this fellow had only a surface understanding of high performance teams and organizational theory.

To go deeper, all he had to do was read the book. What book you ask. Any org theory book from the past 20 years.

You see, organic isn’t just for farmers. Companies have also been admonished to use the organic model -- characterized by free flowing information and flat structures.

Isn’t it ironic, then, that we could of had a flat world 20 years ago simply by aligning our organizations with the reality of the information age. And this internal flat world runs circles around the external flat world.

Instead, like one of Dr. Phil’s troubled patients, we shop for spangled outsourcing so we feel good for the moment, when we should have been developing internal abilities so we’re prepared for the future.

Comments

[Stephen Salzberg]

Mr. Neiderhauser:
Please advise if you are aware of a workshop/seminar that is strictly devoted to the power of the metaphor in the selling of both ideas and products.
Thanks.

[Steve Neiderhauser]

Stephen,

I don't know of any seminars, here's a couple resources.

How Customers Think by Gerald Zaltman --
Metaphor Elicidation Technique

Metaphorically Selling by Anne Miller:

http://www.annemiller.com/Metaphorically_selling_anne_miller.asp

Stealing Fire from the Gods by James Bonnet.

Even though Jim's seminar is devoted to screenwriting, with a little imagination his metaphor concepts can be applied to the business world.

Hope that helps.

Steve