Beyond Leadership: Balancing Economics, Ethics and Ecology, Revised Edition

Z Template: Command Intelligences

Many organizations are trying to become thin, lean, and efficient. Some simply lay off mid-managers. Others crack the whip harder at the lowest echelons while the top layer prospers. In entities managed by Spiral Wizards, more power, responsibility, and resources flow into production/service streams while executive trappings and expensive perks go away. Be not mistaken; this does not mean the company is being given away to the employees, or that quick ORANGE minds are now surplus property, or that GREEN relativistic impulses are replacing BLUE heritage. Something else, something more profound, something downright YELLOW is happening. People on both X and Y Templates have more power because of access to information and fundamental shifts in the human ^vMEME stack.

The role and scope of the executive function is shifting. Fewer entities are relying on quasi-military chain-of-command structures where power is vested in single persons or elitist groups up and down a power pyramid. Rather, they are now forming task-specific brain syndicates, a new decision-team approach that relies on competency, trust, cooperation, independence, and consensus combined.

Business issues are more complex and multidimensional today. The environment in which critical decisions are now being made is more chaotic, faster paced, and less forgiving. More CEOs and senior level managers are aware of the incompleteness of their own knowledge and insight base, particularly where ...