The open source organization: Good in theory or good in reality?
On occasion I get the opportunity to speak publicly about some of the things I’ve learned over the years applying the open source way in organizations. In almost every case, when the Q&A session arrives, I’m greeted with at least one question from a poor soul who loves the idea of applying the open source way to management and culture, but doesn’t think it would ever work in his/her specific organization. Usually the comment is accompanied by some horror story about an evil co-worker, hierarchical boss, crappy HR policy, or some other impediment that would cause the open source way to fail.
And the sad truth? These folks are probably right. Many of these concepts wouldn’t work in their organizations.
So why do I waste my time talking about things that may not work in many organizations? Two reasons:
- hope
- the wind
[Read the rest of this post on opensource.com]