This article is written by Hermanni Hyytiälä, Principal Consultant at Gofore

The Covid crisis has shown that the challenges we face are more complex, intertwined and dependent on circumstances than we ever understood before.

In the face of such challenges, our prevailing approach to cooperation in government does not work. I have experienced this first-hand, as I’ve worked with several public sector organisations including top management teams and front line workers.

People have learned to cooperate on the basis of power structures. Our approach to working together is based more on tradition than science: an ethos of responsibility, control and even fear.

This is the lingua franca of our minds — we find it hard to imagine other ways to cooperate. We do not dare to act differently, even if reality so requires. We have learned to expect pearls of wisdom from the hierarchical power structure to solve things.

The problem with this approach was put succinctly by Michale J. Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organisation's Health Emergencies Programme, and the person leading the team responsible for the international containment and treatment of Covid-19:

“If you need to be right before you move, you will never win. Perfection is the enemy of the good when it comes to emergency management. Speed trumps perfection. And the problem we have in society at the moment is that everyone is afraid of making a mistake. Everyone is afraid of the consequence of error”.

But have we ever wondered why we organise our organisations in the way we do? Are we aware that the economic system, organisations and organisational models are products of our own minds? There is no genetic code that determines the shape or form of organisations. They are man-made, and can be altered by us — if we dare to.

Has top-down management become obsolete?

Our economic system directly and indirectly pushes us to compete and improve the bottom line. This requires efficiency, which in turn requires a clear common purpose.

A power structure is an effective way to ensure things are done efficiently towards a common purpose. For this reason, management has traditionally played a key role in carefully defining a purpose, often in the form of a vision or strategy, and monitoring the organisation’s implementation of it.

But what if, in our changing world, creating more profits and the relentless pursuit of efficiency were no longer appropriate, and that other priorities should carry more weight — for instance the climate crisis? Or if a common purpose could not be defined, because there is no return to the well-known — and well-worn — paradigms of the pre-coronavirus period?

Studies show that a hierarchical organisational model prevents interaction, because information does not flow vertically from bottom to top and from top to bottom, or horizontally between stakeholder

In recent months, the media has been prompted by the coronavirus crisis to reflect on how difficult it is for a strategic player to become an operational one. This tension has been often politicised or personified.

But does this give us reason to question our hierarchical, top-down approach to cooperation? Power structure based divisions between strategic and operational actors make organisations less flexible and less resilient.

Many of the problems experienced by organisations are due to their inability to communicate the many realities within hierarchical organisational structures. The power gap within organisations is too large.

It is often said that a climate of fear is created when leaders punish their subordinates for failure. In reality, such a climate is due to the existence of hierarchies, i.e., control. The leadership style can only soften a hierarchy and means of control.

People are agents, not objects

Studies show that a hierarchical organisational model prevents interaction, because information does not flow vertically from bottom to top and from top to bottom, or horizontally between stakeholders. Many of us are familiar with this phenomenon from our own careers.

In working life, we have learned not to send bad news up the chain of command. We are also accustomed to leaders lacking a good picture of the problems affecting everyday work.

According to newspapers, this was also the case in Wuhan when the virus first spiralled out of control. Doctors reported to hospital managers, who reported to their supervisors, who reported again to their supervisors. While answers and instructions were expected from above, at the grassroots level, the disease got out of hand.

Our greatest challenge does not lie in the fact that our complex world is changing, but in trying to face such a world on the basis of outdated forms of cooperation

We have tried to solve these problems by changing employees or leaders, but have not succeeded in questioning our hierarchical approach to cooperation. At worst, hierarchy leads to underutilisation of capacity and leads to learned helplessness.

How can top management add value for an organisational development if they don't have a thorough understanding of operations? Why can’t development more often begin and end with everyday work?

It is by developing everyday work that people become agents, rather than objects, of change. Top-down led change leads to change-resistance, because it turns people into objects of change.

Cooperation is our superpower

The strength of Homo Sapiens over the millennia has been based on our ability as a species to cooperate. Cooperation has enabled us to solve a range of problems. The coronavirus crisis is a recent demonstration that the challenges we face are more complex, intertwined and dependent on circumstances than ever before.

Our prevalent understanding of cooperation is non-optimal when faced by a highly complex phenomenon. We need new ideas and new types of systems, structures and forms of cooperation. This requires a change in the way we perceive the world and collaboration within and between organisations.

We are living in anxious times. In our changing world, people — and leaders are people too — can only process information to a limited extent. The dysfunctional nature of hierarchies in the face of our new challenges can be a bitter pill for leaders to swallow. It is clear that hierarchies hinder resilience, so this is an unfortunate blind spot.

Overcoming the coronavirus crisis is ultimately about how well we can work together. Power is the construction of our mind, but the coronavirus has no regard for the concept of power. Our greatest challenge does not lie in the fact that our complex world is changing, but in trying to face such a world on the basis of outdated forms of cooperation. — Hermanni Hyytiälä

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