Turco, C. J. (2016). The conversational firm: rethinking bureaucracy in the Age of Social Media (the middle range series). Columbia University Press.
Turco (2016) fully immersed herself into an anonymous technology firm known as TechCo for ten months. She lived at the firm and interviewed employees and leaders during a stage of unsurpassed growth.
At first, TechCo’s lack of organization struck a nerve in me. Generation X leaders were thumbing their nose at conventional bureaucratic systems just to encourage radical openness. They had established certain rules in the nascent beginnings of the company and resisted any effort to deviate from their original guidelines. However, this lack of structure created friction and unease in their twenty-something-year-old employees who grew up in over-scheduled lives. Unlike our generation, parents filled their days with school, extracurricular activities, and very little free time.
Executives rejected the trappings of conventional bureaucratic systems, including centralized decision-making, vertical hierarchy, behavioral rules, and an organizational chart in favor openness and transparency. They incorporated the following tools to encourage dialogue and innovation in a cooperative culture:
- Wiki
- The Wiki became the primary conversational tool for TechCo employees. Leaders employed full transparency by posting the TechCo Equity Summary and quarterly presentations to the board. Employees had a chance to comment and offer feedback on different aspects of the organization and leaders made changes based on their comments, e.g., organizational structure documentation. Problems arose when a select few bullied or drowned out dissenting voices without recourse. The freewheeling nature of the forum resulted in self-censoring and inhibited dialogue.
- Mystery Dinners: small groups of employees were randomly selected to dine and dialogue over dinner.
- HipChat: internal group chat for problem-solving and commiserating across teams
- Hack Nights: informal cross-team brain storming sessions
- Bi-Weekly “Ask the Execs” meeting: informal Q & A chats live and on the wiki
- Surveys to measure happiness: qualitative data for assessing satisfaction
- Ongoing dialogue with customers with limited guidelines to act as ambassadors
Senior leaders used these tools to gain a greater understanding of their employees. They actively listened to their staff’s demand for voice rights without invoking a claim to decision rights. Employees wanted freedom to share their concerns and ideas without the making final decisions. They longed for direction and structure, which goes back to their upbringing. Against their best judgment, leaders incorporated a Human Resources department in response to their employees’ concerns and complaints. Leaders had to let go of their preconceived notions of bureaucracy and implement procedures that resonated with their audience.
The implementation of Use Good Judgment seemed like an accident waiting to happen. Without rules, how will employees know how far they can go? When an incident of Bad Judgment happened, leaders turned it into a teachable moment.
Even though leaders resisted change in the beginning, I appreciate the way they listened to their employees and created shared meaning as a result. By humbly seeking to understand their internal audience, they sailed over the rocky parts and grew their company to a multimillion-dollar corporation. I applaud the way TechCo leaders let go of their rigidity to see the company as a living organization that must change to survive.
TechCo sounds like a great place to work due to the leaders’ commitment to dialogue, active listening to their employees, and a willingness to change direction when needed.
L2: Demonstrate the ability to assess complex organizational environments and achieve communicative goals.
L4: Apply communication-centered scholarship to strengthen communication effectiveness.
D1: Iteratively develop inter-professional leadership competencies.
D2: Utilize communication to embrace complexity and difference.
Keywords: organizational leadership, change management, wiki, voice rights, decision rights, shared leadership, use good judgment, bureaucratic systems
