'What is wrong with Command and Control?' Intellectual Stuff  

Barry (63.176.159.149) -

When I was in the military, we used "command and control" to manage all aspects of our option. I believe that the effective use of command and control is why we won wars. The wars we lost were surely a result of a poor implementation of command and control.

Comment #1 George from New York (Contact Member) -

I think you are absolutely correct. All successful and effective organizations use one form of command and control to keep their employees structured and working effectively.

Comment #2 Roy Madron from Brazil (Contact Member) -

The same thing that is wrong with the Phlogiston Theory, and Ptolomeic cosmology, and bleeding sick people to reduce the humours.

It is an obsolete theory of organisation that prevents leaders from liberating the potential of the people they lead to deal with the burgeoning complexities of modern systems and societies.

It produces badly designed solutions to badly defined problems and thus decreases the capacity of organisations and societies to adapt and innovate appropriately.

It rewards conformity and punishes scepticism.

It is so ingrained in our ways of thinking that its pernicious effects are simply not recognised.

The list is endless. I will write, quote, post much more on this topic over the coming months.

Comment #3 Roy Madron from Curitiba, BR and Montevideo, Uy (Contact Member) -

Anthony Evans in yesterday's Guardian. and Simon Caulkin and Nick Cohen in today's observer all use the stupidity of the decisions made by the big UK banks to provide compelling reasons why the Command and Control model has no future.

Only Evans, however, makes the point that "Rather than gather more "facts", we need to find the most appropriate theory to piece what we already know together.

In response, WILLSON wrote the following.

" Good theory isn't hard to find. What about Argyris and Schon, Senge et al on "The Learning Organisation"? And anything by W. Edwards Deming, Dee Hock, Stafford Beer, Peter Checkland, Meredith Belbin ."

" But their stuff can't be applied because at bottom every sphere of our societies is in deep trouble because of the ubiquity of the obsolete Command and Control Leadership model that was cemented into Boardroom, Whitehall and Westminster cultures by the Thatcherites and New Labour."

"John Seddon gave that theory a good kicking in " FREEDOM FROM COMMAND AND CONTROL.: HOW TO MAKE THE WORK WORK ""

"And of course, looking at any and all complex human systems on the basis of Complexity Theory makes it clear that the sooner the Command and Control model goes the way of the Inquisition and surgeons operating in frock coats, the sooner we might begin to work our way out of the multiple messes that we are in."

• The Gaian Democracy Enterprise

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