Hierarchies

Two thoughts.

First, from the brilliant Indexed:

Second, an article about academic faculty meetings with ideas that can be transferred to many organizations and situations:

Dear Administrator: Flip Your Meeting?

 . . . “We also try to limit the ‘informational’ meetings by giving the information ahead of time. If it can be communicated some other way, than we should do that. Think of it as a ‘flipped’ meeting.” . . .

“One easy way: Instead of speaking at us about problems at our universities or departments, lay out the issues at stake and let faculty work in groups to arrive at potential solutions. More active, more transparent, and probably more productive, too.” . . .

From all of my interviews I was able to extract some principles:

• Share data and information ahead of time.
• Let the faculty know what the hoped-for result of a meeting is.
• Develop innovative ways to involve the faculty in generating ideas rather than passively receiving content.

In other words, less top-down communication, more bottom-up participation.