Now THIS is classic Sesame Street. Classic. In this video, the Henson crew not only lyrically describes the impacts of cooperation, they also describe its viral and emergent properties. Note that the Fonz-muppet sees the other muppets building and cooperating and is moved to replicate that. Then other muppets are all like, “Hey, that’s interesting, how can we help?” Then they go off to do it again.
Simplistic? Very much so. But accurate nonetheless. Cooperation is viral and as it spreads it gains momentum.
It’s like that in companies, where policies create either cooperative or isolating cultures. Cultures that focus on the dissemination of information as a means of getting things done establish a foundation for sharing and cooperation. Cultures that avoid rigid role definitions and distribute decision making set this foundation as well.
Simple “seed” policies and an air of distributed decision-making can make it happen.
Cooperation.
Dig it.
Top-down management has become synonymous with business. A rigid, hierarchical structure used to make sense when the cost of information creation, storage, discovery, and distribution was still relatively high. Modern technology has since made vast stores of information immediately accessible and discoverable, dramatically impacting the way people carry out their work.
