IPS

The Inverted Pyramid Structure

Synopsis

The Top-Down Hierchial model, upon which traditional organisational charts are based, is not suited to organisations with self-managed teams, which omni prosperity necessarily implies. However, there tends to be the need for a visionary to start (in the case Jim Clark with Netscape, Healthion), a love-to-do-it-leader to continue (in the case today with Linus and Linux), and a pragmatic businessman to finish (in the case of RedHat and Debian with creating distributions) projects.

How does one reconcile the function of a leader with the omnipresence of personal soverignty? By rule by vision, merit, support, ior prosperity, rather than by coercion. The arising structure, I call the "inverted pyramid", because it has the most people (the wider population) as the most important and the focal point (the visionary or benevolent dictator) as the least important - and, in a way, least free, because (s)he must be dedicated to the success of the phase(s) of the project for which (s)he came to power.

Fortunately, dedication usually comes with a love-to-do-it-ness present in benevolent dicatators, who often either sacrifice careers or chose to fulfil destinies with more difficult, but more rewarding, paths, than others of equal or greater skill, but no personal desire to lead in this respect.

Major tenants of the inverted pyramid structure:

Creative works demonstrate the intellect of the human creator
The right to share information
The right to make a profit, in economic, social, political terms.
The ability of each individual to enrich the world by exercising their unique abilities

Tabular diagram of organisation

L#	Label	Component	Description	Example
1..3	Populace (Customers, Consumers, Admirers)	All sentient life, wheter they "buy" or not	The whole world is seen as the potential market	Coca-cola as a global household name, Water as a trans-competitor, Pepsi as fair-competitor
4	Shareholders	Low-risk investors	Investing public	NASDAQ
5..7	Producers	All systems within the organisation	"Human resources" and support systems within the organisation	Employees, Inventors, Accounting system, Simulators, Consultants
8	Venture Capitalists	Capital-rich investors	All people with "money to burn",i.e. who aren't afraid of investing at the high-risk stage	Funders of Transmeta
9	Managers / Metaservants	"Inner Circle": Directors, Permanenr Secretary, Treasurer	People who want to become enriched by association with the leader, or who have similar goals and hence contribute to his project. May later spon-off complimentary (or even, competing) businesses/projects	Board of Directors, Department Heads, Team Leaders, Cabiner Ministers. Most active 1,000 or so Linux Kernel Developers
10	Leader / King / Celebrity	Company (legal entity) or project (socio-political construct) as extention of leader	Founder and Visionary	Prime Minister of Babrados, Linus Torvalds over his Linux tree, Alan cox over his Linux tree.
11	Transcendental	God, Destiny, etc.	Outside-of-human forces	God, Infinity, Sex (varies with individual beliefs)

Notes

Metservants

Since most teams will tend to be self-directed (to some degree at least), the managers of these teams are really mentors, who give advice and instruction as needed, rather than overlords. They serve the company by serving the employees, but in a way which increases total intellectual knowledge and experience of all parties (win-win). Hence, the term meta-servant, or beyond-servant.

They may also occasionally sweep the floor, but that goes for everyone.

Leader

The visionary and founder of the organisation must lead it in starting. However, in the middle phase (which can be infinite - traditional business theory sees businesses as going concerns which may never end), this leader becomes more of a co-ordinator.

Frequently, people are hired (Steve Ballmar, Microsoft) , or systems implemented (BitKeeper, Linux Kernel Developmet), to take on the day-to-day activities of the company (which may overwhelm the visonary as (s)he tries to play both roles).

It would be a mistake, however, to also give up the key political elements which make you a great visionary (e.g. Linux ceasing to maintain a Kernel tree).

Parallels in the Holy Bible

[ probally put this in another section , not directly relevant but might be useful within xian fundamentalist regions ]

The first shall be last

Behold, a new kingdom...

K31. 8 Dec. 2002.