Category: Business, Organization, and Management

OVERSING’S MISSION (AND AN ESSAY ON THE WORLD OF WORK)

The central problem of science is not one of improving the scientific method or the conduct of scientific investigation, or even the effort of investigation, it is one of eliminating errors in human perception, bias, cognition, and knowledge in the process of applying the scientific method to scientific investigation.

The central problem of demonstrated intelligence is not one of improving IQ but of eliminating asymmetries of information, costs of information acquisition, and reduction of error in the use of information – science makes us smarter by the identification of, and application of, general principles instead of a multitude of specific rules.

Likewise, the central problem of workplace excellence is not increasing incentives, but decreasing disincentives and malincentives: frictions, obstacles, and informational asymmetries on one hand, and developing experience at the craft on the other.

The central cause of frictions, obstacles, and informational asymmetries is the use of human infrastructure to collect and distribute information: middle management, rather than the use of technological infrastructure.

Just as accounting was a technology necessary to overcome the limits of human perception, bias, cognition, memory as the scale of our production and trade increased, we need a method of overcoming the limits of human perception, cognition, memory and bias in the work place.

Why? Because technology has no personal ambition, no political alliances, cannot and does not hide information, nor seek discounts and rents. The purpose of middle management is i) mentorship in the craft the group practices, ii) to collect and distribute information – but both at the cost of bias and rent-seeking (a nice word for the soft form of corruption.)

If we collect and distribute information technologically both upward to executives, and rely upon a using technology to create a commons: a market for knowledge of one another’s ability, we create transparency (truthfulness), and eliminate bias, rents and malincentives.

For much of the past century, social scientists, particularly in the field of economics, have been attempting to solve the question of the high cost of middle management and the evolution of bureaucratic self interest, inflexibility, and organizational calcification. But we have had no alternative to human infrastructure. And where we do have an alternative, it often is equally biased: Key Performance Indicators (KPI), as well as the most reductio of measurements: profit and loss – and all with no comparable measure of the frictions, obstacles, attempts at discounts by transferring effort between individuals and groups.

Just as privacy has evolved into an irrelevant issue because once we abandon our concern for it, instead of hiding information, we work to constantly improve our reputations on the one hand and recognize we all go through phases of maturity and make the same errors, and so forgive one another of those errors on the other.

Those who demand privacy today are generally engaged in preserving some self delusion of greater economic, social or moral status than they in fact possess – and we and they would benefit from truth over fiction.

Social media has made the church confessional unnecessary. We confess our sins in public as did the first christians and in doing so are forgiven by one another – because we all are human and commit the same foolish errors of each phase of our lives.

We can use the same techniques inside the workplace to create transparency, understanding, and trust – assuming the work performed is in fact objectively ethical and moral – and we can provide mentorship in the craft, self-regulation of the community, and information distribution from executives to staff, as well as bubbling up problems and opportunities from staff to executives. This transparency and trust creates a flatter organization with more engagement, fewer rents, and greater interpersonal commitment and loyalty to one another, to the group and to the organization.

The counter argument is that there are only so many good people in the world. The answer to that argument is that people follow incentives. And immoral and unethical people are the exception when they are subject to ethical and moral incentives.

Another is that people will only work so hard. And the answer to that argument is i) why is it that you wish to extract work from people that they do not wish to provide at the compensation that you provide them with, and ii) the externalities produced by doing so are always worse than the benefits gained from trying. (american workplaces still contain vast buckets of unethical and immoral behavior – particularly in government, insurance, investment, cell phone and cable television industries. And vast buckets of rent-seeking and free-riding in government, finance and big businesses.)

I want to create a world of workplaces that I would want to work in on one hand and want to be serviced by on the other. Where I had support from peers, and honesty from executives and management. And where I receive support and service from companies I purchase from. Where no one profits from deceit or involuntary transfer.

Oversing will take three to five years of additional development to have enough features and statistical information to fulfill the role of human infrastructure, and ten perhaps to begin to alter the world of work. But that’s our heroic ambition: to change the world of work forever – to eliminate what we call ‘alienation’ in the workplace. To build an ethical, moral, and enjoyable place to work, that thrills customers consistently.

To build a better world for humans to live in.

Curt Doolittle

Founder and CEO,

Reality By Chanting

Creators of Oversing.