In my business, in our government, and in the organizations within our society we are quite accustomed to pyramid-shaped management and control hierarchical structures.
Let’s take the government of Canada as an example. For the moment, let’s assume our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to be at the “top”. Continuing with this perspective, “below” him would be his chosen Cabinet. Harper’s job is to manage and control them – to keep them in line. He can do that through many possible methods, but the most common method chosen is the carrying of the big stick. If they do not do his bidding, they lose their earned “high” position on the pyramid. They are literally afraid of him and therefore stay in line. This is as designed.
From there, there are deputies and committee members chosen from the parliamentarians of all parties (and the civil service) working for Cabinet members. They, in turn, must fear the Cabinet members, lest they lose their position. And finally (in our over-simplified model), there’s the lowly citizens and residents who must obey whatever laws are handed down for fear of reprisal and loss of standing in our society.
This is known as a command and control structure and a similar model is in place for virtually every corporation, government, and community organization in our world. Remember the themes. Command, obey, control and fear – these are the natural outcomes of this type of structure. And, by the way, so is competition. Competition is a natural outcome of this structure as we all, quite logically, see that we can expand our options and gain some freedom and status if we can move “up” the structure. There is an increasingly reduced number of spots on the pyramid as we move upward and a significant number of candidates. Thus, candidates become competitors to one another for good reason. Within the structure, there is, indeed, a scarcity of options.
But what happens when we flip this model over?
First, continuing with our Canadian government again as the model, poor Mr. Harper lands at the bottom. His job is to provide support to his Cabinet Ministers in doing their jobs. (As an aside, this might free our Environment Minister to actually learn about the environment, but I digress). They each, in turn, provide support to the Members of Parliament and civil servants on their teams as they carry out various improvements in our society in service to the citizens and residents of Canada.
This inverted pyramid has some very different characteristics. Let’s start at its broadest point – now the top. Citizens and residents of Canada have the authority and freedom to carry out their lives. When they look around them, they see and respect other citizens and residents and do not see themselves as competitors. Rather, as they wish to create groups, social clubs, teams, etc., they see one another as voluntary collaborators who can join or not based on the level to which the club appeals to them. Occasionally, they’ll look downward in the new pyramid for support from the Member of Parliament knowing that the MP is a servant paid by the governmental structure to be of assistance.
The MP’s when called upon by citizen groups, now work collaboratively together sharing knowledge and common experience to be of service to their citizens. The civil service and the House of Parliament is one where ideas are shared and solutions are developed. Occasionally, groups of concerned MPs will bring a matter to a Cabinet Minister for support and guidance and, when determined, the solution will be rolled out through the MPs and back through the citizen groups. Finally, Mr. Harper provides final support and guidance to Cabinet Ministers as is deemed necessary by those Cabinet Ministers. His daily agenda is driven by them, theirs is driven by the MPs and civil servants, and theirs is driven by citizens and residents. On any given day, it is quite likely that Mr. Harper would have very little to do – and that would be a good thing – the citizens and residents of Canada are going about their lives just fine, thank you very much, and do not need the services of their government (certainly not at the Prime Minister level) thank you very much.
Now, I chose Canada’s government as an example, but I could just as easily have chosen the pyramid structure of any large corporation, almost any small corporation, provincial government, municipal government, media outlet, sports organization, etc. They are almost all pyramids, and theses pyramids can all be turned upside-down.
Remember the themes from before - command, obey, control and fear. How do they look, upside-down. Those previously doing the commanding and controlling are now supporting. Those previously obeying are now requesting support (if necessary). And where did all the fear go? Gone – replaced by support and caring.
And competition? What happened to competition, that key component of our world that makes the pyramid structure thrive and so “efficient”? Trumped by collaboration – the collective power of people living and working for their own shared desired outcomes with profound respect for one another. Of course they don’t violate one another’s rights, the group would quickly organize, with the support from below, to correct that matter.
I know this “cannot happen”. “It’s just not the way we look at things”. Au contraire, it is exactly and only the way we look at things.
Let’s revisit the model of our Canadian government one last time and review the perspective change that would be necessary for us to have this pyramid inverted.
Starting at the top, citizens and residents would perceive themselves to be powerful and responsible for their own lives. They would see their fellow citizens as potential collaborators in their lives to be respected and enjoyed. I know many, many citizens and residents of Canada who already have this view and I am inspired by the DDO Defenders, the Occupy movement and many more. People are taking matters into their own hands and looking to governments only as necessary for support.
Next, we have MPs and civil servants. I cannot comment on how powerful MPs and civil servants may feel today. However, my wish is that they understand the profound responsibility they have to serve the public directly and to work together (yes, even across parties) for the betterment of Canada. They should never be told how to vote, except by the citizens they represent. Well, that just takes a perspective change.
Cabinet Ministers would have a deep need to obtain domain knowledge for the important portfolio they hold. Policy would be set in response to MPs, coming from citizen groups. In this model, would Canada be repeat winners of Fossil of the Year awards at environmental conferences? Is that really what our citizenry wants? Again, I see this as simply a perspective change for the Cabinet Ministers –not as hard to accomplish as they may think.
And lastly, Hr. Harper. Rather than viewing himself as the exerter of control, he would view himself as the source of support and caring for Canada. His role would ultimately be granted to the person who most loves this country and would do whatever it takes to preserves it’s collaborative, respectful freedom-enjoying citizens. Again, that’s just a perspective change.
We, the people, can choose MPs who will work for us, not their Cabinet and insist that they do just that. And we can insist that our MPs select Cabinet Ministers (no longer chosen by the Prime Minister) with expert knowledge who will deliver on the important portfolios of our time. And Cabinet Ministers can choose to take their guidance from the MPs they serve, coming from us – using the Prime Minister for support only when necessary. We have the numbers to do this, we just need to check in with the electoral system and make it happen.
Today is my 45th birthday and I’m conceding that my life is at least one third over. For the next 45, I’ll be finding my role within inverted pyramids. Collaboration, support and caring will replace competitiveness and I will shun fear. This is what works, so I’m happy to do it. This entry is meant to begin anew that dialogue – for my business, for my politics and for my family and friends. As always, I am happy to take your feedback and thanks for reading.
