Sh*t Creek

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Why is it that the larger corporate groups become, the less collective intelligence they show ? You can assemble 10 very clever individuals, and they'll produce some great work?or even 5 (hi there Pier, Carlos, Ralf, Roberto & Fulgi). Take 100 and you're already running into problems ? everything takes 5 times longer, and quality falls off. After that it gets exponentially worse. When you get into 1000s, all vestigial common sense is long gone, and mediocrity, camouflaged by grandiose Mission Statements and Core Values takes over. People who in a smaller group would produce excellent work no longer take any pride in what they actually produce, and motivation comes only from winning turf wars ("you can't plug in that Ethernet cable, you have to ask me, I'm IT, and you'll have to wait 5 weeks") and climbing the corporate ladder. It isn't just frustrating, it is more like a terrifyingly soulless purgatory (yeah, yeah, I know, by definition you can't have a soul-less purgatory ), churning out huge, expensive, hopeless products that are doomed before they start. As for imagination and creative thought, well, see below? Does this only apply to the IT industry ? Certainly it seems to be the worst affected.