HIERARCHY TO DIE OR TO THRIVE?

Who is the real customer of the traditional hierarchical organizations? The Boss. Our organizations have always been hierarchical. The decision-making power increases as we go up, creating a structural distance from decisions and problems / opportunities that are generated where supply meets demand. Decisions are waiting to be made, while problems get bigger and bigger. The decision-makers need thousands of meetings, while the people at the bottom, who often know the solution but cannot decide, will experience demotivation. Everyone is afraid of making mistakes. And slowness, bureaucracy, stress, disengagement reign. All costs for people, organizations and customers. Everyone looks upward: organizational wry neck is widespread. We experience this every day. Can we be surprised? The traditional hierarchy comes from the past, from worlds that no longer exist. But we never talk about how to evolve hierarchy… Instead, we have been talking for decades about leadership, yet the problems remain the same: silos, lack of delegation, stress on the top, frustration at the bottom, and procrastination even though people run all day long. Why? Hierarchy creates the playing field much more than leadership! But at the idea of changing the hierarchy, we fear being overwhelmed by chaos… So what?

Is there anything that can inspire us to evolve the traditional hierarchy? Yes, there is.

We as humans have always used hierarchy to create order and exercise power. Hierarchy is the backbone of our organizations. But, guess what? Hierarchy is also the backbone of our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), as studies by neuroscientist Stephen Porges, the author of the Polyvagal Theory (here applied for the first time to organizations), show. Surprise! Organizations and our ANS share the same structure: Organizational Hierarchy and Biological Hierarchy.

From the Polyvagal Theory, we learn that the Biological Hierarchy that structures our ANS can function both as a tool for defense and as a tool for connection and prosperity. We as humans construct hierarchies in order to survive and thrive. But our Biological Hierarchy is more evolved than our Organizational Hierarchy because, in addition to functioning as a hierarchy of defense, it can also operate as a Hierarchy of Connection, the neural state that makes us feel safe physiologically and psychologically. In this state, we open up, become focused, essential, renew our energy and use power to collaborate. Instead, the traditional Organizational Hierarchy has been structured primarily as a defensive, closed and self-centered hierarchy, which breeds fear and cultivates the use of power as a tool for fight/flight. Thus. Hierarchies to die or to thrive? We can consciously choose to cultivate in every organization hierarchies of connection that foster experiences of mutual security. This is a book to broaden thinking about hierarchy and open up concrete ways to take the first steps in a new direction that evolves people, teams and organizations. In the book you will find several working indications and many cases for getting started. Lowering the costs of fear by cultivating “Psychological Safety,” the concept that Amy Edmondson has brought to worldwide attention, which finds its neural basis in the studies of Stephen Porges. We can call it: Neuro-Psychological Safety. Making Connecting Teams the minimal unit of the organization, which can self-manage rather than be commanded and controlled. Co-redesigning the culture involving all people. Bringing out the Bio-Purpose, because it has a biological basis, as the highest hierarchy. Our organizations have always been Bio-Organizations. Everyone says our organizations are made up of people. Why doesn’t anyone say they are made of bodies? Bodies are capable of connecting: we can use that power to thrive. The key in Organization Design? Our Biology.

AMY EDMONDSON AT THE 2024 LEADERSHIP FORUM (MILAN)

Amy Edmondson with Marina Capizzi and Tiziano Capelli, co-founders of PRIMATE and authors of the italian prefaces to “Right Kind Of Wrong” and “The Fearless Organization”

MARINA CAPIZZI INTERVIEWS HENRY MINTZBERG

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