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Wiki Management: A Revolutionary New Model for a Rapidly Changing and Collaborative World
Command-and-control may have once been an effective model in managing the large numbers of cookie-cutter clones that business programs were producing faster than anyone could say “MBA,” but the rapid change and increasing complexity of the twenty-first century have rendered that model obsolete. For the most part, today’s managers who were trained in the old ways are not adept to succeed in the current work environment that has evolved from take-it-or-leave-it hierarchies to collaborative networks of workers and managers feeding off of each other’s ideas to build the business together. The new age of mass collaboration demands a new and extremely different model to manage by today--wiki management.Featuring enlightening examples from forward-thinking companies including Google, Whole Foods, Linux, and Wikipedia, Wiki Management outlines the revolutionary, necessary steps companies must take to: • Leverage their collective intelligence • Effectively integrate diverse points of view • Transition leaders from the role of “boss” to that of facilitator • Make “delighting customers“ more important than pleasing superiors • Achieve a shared and actionable understanding of the key drivers of business successIt’s a different world today than the one you were educated in, trained in, and found great success in. This “wiki” world has reshaped both the work we do and the way we do it, making mass collaboration not only possible but usually the best solution. This groundbreaking book reveals what it takes for managers of any generation to succeed in this fast-paced and exciting new environment.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
8 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Rod Collins
23 books2 followersRod Collins is the founder and owner of Wiki-Management, a Denver-based management consulting firm. Rod helps companies make the leap to extraordinary performance by showing them how they can gain quick access to the most untapped resource in almost every business: the collective knowledge of its own people. By learning how to leverage this rich resource, business leaders are able to transform slow-moving hierarchical bureaucracies into agile collaborative communities.
Collins is the former chief operating executive of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program, one of the nations largest and most successful business alliances, with over $19 billion in annual revenues. Under his leadership, the business increased its market share by 16 percentage points, and year after year, set new records for operational and financial performance.
Rod is the author of Leadership in a Wiki World: Leveraging Collective Knowledge to Make the Leap to Extraordinary Performance. He also writes a weekly blog on management innovation, which highlights how the most successful business leaders are reinventing management to stay ahead of todays ever-accelerating pace of change.
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Collins is the former chief operating executive of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program, one of the nations largest and most successful business alliances, with over $19 billion in annual revenues. Under his leadership, the business increased its market share by 16 percentage points, and year after year, set new records for operational and financial performance.
Rod is the author of Leadership in a Wiki World: Leveraging Collective Knowledge to Make the Leap to Extraordinary Performance. He also writes a weekly blog on management innovation, which highlights how the most successful business leaders are reinventing management to stay ahead of todays ever-accelerating pace of change.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 15, 2013
As usual I received this book for free because someone gave it to me for review. This time it was a LibraryThing drawing. Despite that kind consideration I give my candid opinions below.
Usually in my reviews I try to draw out some positive and negative aspects of a book and make an argument for the assigned rating. That's difficult to do with non-fiction because the topics are so varied and of sometimes dubious interest. Instead I'll just try to tell you what this book is and what it isn't.
The first third of the book argues quite vehemently and specifically for tearing down traditional hierarchical management structures. By these I mean those archaic constructs in which a boss controls 6-7 employees and he in turn has a boss above him controlling 6-7 of his peers onward and onward. It argues instead for a collaborative structure in which groups of employees choose their own teams based on work needs at a specific time with leadership positions only there to referee in the event of deadlock. Rather than the usual 6:1 ratio of employees to managers the book recommends 60:1.
After it makes its case for why you should organize your company in this way, the book settles down in the latter two thirds to give specific practices that successful organizations use to make this style effective. It goes on at length and in great detail about how to manage such an organization from meeting styles to employee evaluations. It is a soup-to-nuts treatise on modern management structure and practice.
My only real beef with the book lies in the practicality of what it has to say. As a non-management professional in the software industry I respect the proposition and would love to work in such an environment but I have trouble imagining any workplace I've ever been in successfully pulling off anything from this book except dangling bits and pieces. Unfortunately, when companies try to reinvent themselves in the way the book describes the outcomes are almost always unpleasant. You can't really piecemeal your way into an entirely new style of management and no company I've ever worked for has been willing to go at this sort of thing with sufficient gusto. So if you're looking to start a company or are the CEO of a really tiny and nimble operation, I invite you to the book and suggest you build your company around it. I'll sign up to be your first employee as would every professional acquaintance I have.
Usually in my reviews I try to draw out some positive and negative aspects of a book and make an argument for the assigned rating. That's difficult to do with non-fiction because the topics are so varied and of sometimes dubious interest. Instead I'll just try to tell you what this book is and what it isn't.
The first third of the book argues quite vehemently and specifically for tearing down traditional hierarchical management structures. By these I mean those archaic constructs in which a boss controls 6-7 employees and he in turn has a boss above him controlling 6-7 of his peers onward and onward. It argues instead for a collaborative structure in which groups of employees choose their own teams based on work needs at a specific time with leadership positions only there to referee in the event of deadlock. Rather than the usual 6:1 ratio of employees to managers the book recommends 60:1.
After it makes its case for why you should organize your company in this way, the book settles down in the latter two thirds to give specific practices that successful organizations use to make this style effective. It goes on at length and in great detail about how to manage such an organization from meeting styles to employee evaluations. It is a soup-to-nuts treatise on modern management structure and practice.
My only real beef with the book lies in the practicality of what it has to say. As a non-management professional in the software industry I respect the proposition and would love to work in such an environment but I have trouble imagining any workplace I've ever been in successfully pulling off anything from this book except dangling bits and pieces. Unfortunately, when companies try to reinvent themselves in the way the book describes the outcomes are almost always unpleasant. You can't really piecemeal your way into an entirely new style of management and no company I've ever worked for has been willing to go at this sort of thing with sufficient gusto. So if you're looking to start a company or are the CEO of a really tiny and nimble operation, I invite you to the book and suggest you build your company around it. I'll sign up to be your first employee as would every professional acquaintance I have.
January 24, 2014
In Wiki Management, author Rod Collins sets out to show how businesses need to adapt and change in order to succeed in today’s world. He details ‘wiki management’, which is quick/fast management disciplines designed to help managers keep pace with quickly changing economics and industries. Collins writes that companies that have managed to be successful in the Great Recession have replaced traditional management models. He details the new practices that he believes are crucial for success in the rapidly changing digital age. Collins asserts that there must be a complete change in mindset, and he provides fifty specific practices for changing an organization in this well written, straight forward book.
February 21, 2014
This book is full of great information and practices that will help businesses be able to create the types of management that will allow them to be successful in today’s business world. Because the business world has to move so much quicker today, thanks to the fast paced internet age, the author shows what archaic management practices are too slow and cumbersome, and how to create or change a business’s structure to better deal with fast paced decisions and productivity.
January 8, 2014
Fifty concrete, hands-on things you can try tomorrow to get your organisation in a shape to survive & thrive in the twenty-first century. Well worth a read.
Summary at: http://businessin21stcentury.com/arti...
Summary at: http://businessin21stcentury.com/arti...
April 19, 2016
Good primer on modern management thinking, combined with lots of concrete techniques. Concepts may be familiar if you've read up on progressive ideas in management, e.g., How Google Works, etc., but useful, nonetheless.
March 25, 2014
Really good book with a set of powerful practices. I would say "must read". It could get 5 if it was less wordy.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews