Hierarchies

We love hierarchies. But they're changing.

It used to be easy. We knew where we stood. We had a place in a known system. We knew who to ask, who to tell, and who controlled our future. We could design processes, create protocols, develop template answers and become really quite efficient.

As with anything like this, it becomes habit, and habits are addictive. People who depend on the system - particularly those in the middle of the hierarchy - become far more adept at categorising challenges and applying template solutions than analysing the challenge. It's faster, easier and safer. When appraisals and bonuses are at stake, that's important.

The flow of information, opinion and power was straightforward. There were limited nodes in our networks. Things that weren't simple did at least have to good grace to be complicated, and computers are good at complicated, and much better than the people we've trained to do it. In those areas, the threats we see to jobs are real.

Traditional approache…