cluetrainplus10 – Links Subvert Hierarchies

April 30, 2009 · Comments

links I’m part of the cluetrainplus10 project, where I was asked to write about Thesis #7 Hyperlinks Subvert Hierarchy. It’s in Chapter 5 of the cluetrain manifesto. It’s funny, because in a way, I’ve already written about this when I talked about building a small powerful network.

This thesis, which deals with the hyperlinked organization, is a way of suggesting that orgs restructure and break out of being silo-driven. It also reminds us that there is a web of connections, not individuals standing out of context or connectivity. Ten years after the manifesto was written, I feel that the businesses currently weathering the storm of this economic downturn are those who have taken this idea into the organization and executed on it.

Successful freelancers think this way. They consider the world as a web of resources that they can tie together in different ways to make projects happen. Gathering resources into a useful configuration is how the web functions. Businesses can take advantage of this train of thought by considering how to build their executions from a project-minded perspective, and by considering non-employee business relationships to be part of the resource chain.

I’m torn when I write all this. I’m inclined to say “we’re already doing this!” But I’ve been to several large organizations over the last many months, and they’re not. They’re still operating from paradigms that were cast together in the 1950s and 1960s. These, coincidentally, are the same businesses that are having a tough time in the current economic situation.

If you think of your business as a collection of “what you need to accomplish” versus “what processes and resources you have,” this kind of thinking starts to make sense.

The picture in this blog post doesn’t exist on my servers. I’ve put it there via links. The links in this blog post, which point you to resources like the online text of the cluetrain manifesto, are pointing you to resources that don’t existing on this website. I’ve built a compilation of resources that I needed to pull together to tell this story exactly the way businesses can build projects out of multiple resource sources to accomplish a goal.

Has this changed in the 10 years since cluetrain was written? Yes. I’d say that many people have learned to build on this paradigm, at least in the forward-minded companies, and that others will follow.

Twitter has an ecosystem of businesses that prove this. Facebook integrates with several other platforms. Google Maps allows thousands of mashup projects that exist outside of hierarchies.

We think this way. It’s exactly the way humans are wired. We build resonance this way.

And now you. What do you find? What will you link to? Where will the next wired projects take you?

This is part of the cluetrainplus10 project.

photo credit Jared

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  • Insightful stuff. This short article radiates the fact that you've been living and breathing this for years. It seems obvious when you write it like that. Yet I''ve spent two years myself in my startup to realize that all that I've done to become a "normal" business was wrongheaded - and that I should have pursued the online paths a lot more rigouriously - right from the start.
  • Yes, interesting Chris.

    As you suggest the links model is a good one to apply beyond the web - in real life.

    I wonder also why some organisations haven't taken it up - even though it's such a naturally human way to behave?
  • Alexander
    Thx 4 the info. Good stuff.
  • Thanks for the reminder on this cluetrain Thesis. I am usually so focused on #1, Markets are Conversations. Funny enough, #7 illustrates how #1 is true. Conversations can't happen without connections (otherwise you're talking to yourself.) The web made connections so much easier.

    In conversation marketing, we advise clients to really join their market's conversation whether that is with consumers, competitors, influencers, industry organizations, etc. Being "linked" across your industry, as well as cross linking your company to adjacent industries creates more visibility for you.
  • I just came across the clutrain manifesto yesterday when I signed up for a changecamp and got excited about what they were doing. I followed all the hyperlinks to get the best overview I could. I did not find out what was happening today with it so am glad to find this today via a tweet by @Simonford

    Of course this is what we do naturally. This entire movement into new media is changing things but the shift wont really be seen until the generation born into it are building business relationships. It is happening there already of course but I am not surprised that you find a lot still functioning from the 1950s modalities. A lot of the education and literature that is available is anchored in it. The education systems have yet to get introduced to the cluetrain let alone (10).
  • Cluetrain has been a huge part of my business, to the point where we give every conference attendee a copy. The first time out everyone got one as a gift, now it's optional when people register.

    My business partner and I run a small conference business, that has events world wide. We use the web to source the things we can't do, making connections with people that we can help and that can help us.

    We take Cluetrain and transparency very seiously doing a money breakdown at the end of the event, so people see what goes into the event, and can talk to us about it.
  • "Successful freelancers think this way. They consider the world as a web of resources that they can tie together in different ways to make projects happen."

    Humans are not all wired this way. Not everyone thinks of how they can solve problems, complete projects or finish tasks through weaving together the resources around them. I see it every day in my current position. Part of what i've come to realize is that a piece of my job is actually to help facilitate this type of interaction/thinking between people on my team.

    I think the sports world is further ahead with respect to this type of thinking. they know it takes a team to win (football, basketball, baseball, soccer, etc...) ... they work at it, train, practice and are fully aware that it takes everyone on the team contributing 110% to be excellent!

    http://twitter.com/franswaa
  • Guest
    I found your post especially interesting, as I just heard Leigh Duncan-Durst (@livepath on Twitter) talk about the need to eliminate silos to achieve truly customer-centric organizations, or what you suggest here, as the hyperlinked organization.

    In her talk, Leigh mentioned how important it is to work with the HR department to restructure organizations in a more holistic way (where each discipline becomes an agent of customer experience) and to reward customer-centric (hyperlinked) behavior within the organization.

    I truly believe that without incentives and built-in accountability for collaborative behavior (including performance reviews), business will go on as usual.

    Many organizations reward competitive, not collaborative behavior, between the disciplines, with a race to the finish line mentality that rarely takes into account the customer's full experience with the product or service, but rather perpetuates the more vested requirements and tunnel-vision of each silo.

    Without a senior executive responsible for the full range of Customer Experience Management, I believe the likelihood of true collaboration between the disciplines remains low.
  • You are right that "We're already doing this" BUT very few organizations have figured it out. Especially larger corporations. The thought of letting loose of hierarchies and fiefdoms is scary to many managers. They still do not understand the power of the network and I believe many will go down fighting before they hand over their control-based management.

    It is going to be interesting to see which companies adapt first and how that effects market share going forward,

    Doug
  • It is really interesting Chris.
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