Coordinated operations, decentralized control

CODEC instead of MECE.

While the factory floors and rigid administration processes of a reductionist management world worked well for almost a century, we reached its limit.

Complex domains require a new approach.

Where adaptability outscales any execution efficiency, incumbents go out of business rapidly.

In the Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive thinking, every problem can be reduced to disctinct steps. Strategies and alternatives can be drafted to each step. Chosing top down the execution is feasible. Only in complicated domains.

Complexity grew over the last century. Organization above tens of thousands of employees. Hierarchies flattened to ease the burden yet failed to realize true potential.

How an organization of over a hundred thousand people managed to pull off the Moon landing half a century ago?

Due to their new managerial approach.

Where the goal was shared and control was relinquished.

Decisions and empowerment of colleagues pushed as down the chain as possible, close to the actual action and data.

This is the decentralized control.

It is not synonymous with losing control. It is a more sophisticated control, requiring soft-influence skills, the hardest to understand and execute.

But it can work on top of efficient and effective execution.

Operations themselves, the on the ground actions are still need to be meticulously planned, trained and executed. Like an elite commando. Each member trains for a lifetime with their group, speaking a shared language that exists only in their minds.

Shared consciousness of a unit coordinates their operations.

Coordinated Operations, DEcentralized Control. Both legs are crucial for an efficient and competitive organization. Leave the Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive to the tactical steps where it belongs.

Which one do you lack in your organization? How do you plan to address it in your strategy?