Nicholas Robinson, May, 2015 1

The ‘Humpty Dumpty’ Problem

Open Government: Innovators and Gatekeepers

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 2

Combating innovation-hostility in organizations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oKreL1jvkg

Gatekeepers: the ‘Humpty Dumpty’ problem

An ecosystems approach to enable more open governance

Monocultures stifle creativity

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 3

Culture and Counterculture: Reason and Belief

• Aka. hearts and minds• Organizational culture – May become fragmented

• departmentalization and roles may develop a culture and a counterculture

• As documented and occurring in our inner-city state schools in the UK: external peer group pressures reach both inside and outside the classroom (Sociology of Education)

• B. F. Skinner's “Technology of behavior in American life: From consumer culture to counterculture” (google)

• T. Liyoshi, M.S.V. Kumar, “Opening Up Education”, Ch. 1; Visions of a new learning ecology, MIT, Google Books, (c)2008

• Google “education, classroom learning, culture social science, counterculture, peer group pressure”

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 4

Socially smart behaviour• Those that succeed in work and life do so by: -

– Adopting a set of rules• Playing the game

– Developing an ecosystems awareness– Safety in numbers– Inclusion and exclusion

• Self-preservation– rarely rock the boat

• Adopting survival tactics– know their Machiavelli– form alliances and associations aka. networking– Develop empathic skills

• Develop a “counter-culture”– Humpty’s hard shell– Deploy “not invented here”

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 5

The Humpty Dumpty Problem

Closed governance: -Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall ..

for Humpty Dumpty was overseer of all ..

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 6

Europe 2.0• Open Government• Science 2.0• Creative Solutions• Organizational Culture• Environmental

awareness• Empathy with the local

social and economic environment(s) aka. cultures

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 7

Humpty Dumpty became prosperous and important ..

– So he developed a hard shell • to protect his soft sell

– And because he was so brittle • he built a wall

– So he could sit high and tall • and control all passage below

– And prevent collaboration with outsiders• who might threaten his position

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 8

Humpty The Great Gatekeeper

• Mature organizational structures become brittle because they end-up headed by ‘Humpty Dumpty’ types

• “I run a budget of $1M a day– to keep intruders away”– We ‘don’t do inventions’ that are “not invented

here”!– We run a monoculture!

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 9

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall..

• Male territorialism and organizational structures – organizational structures beget (cause to appoint)

organizational thinkers– job-security under threat

• creativity-driven targets struggle in a monoculture

• Trade barriers were erected– overseen by yet more gatekeepers– But no one could see why, except of course Humpty

from on-high

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 10

Not all the Kings Horses

• Nor all the Kings men• Could put Humpty together again!– Organizations run by rank and seniority are not

self-healing

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 11

Brittle Vs. Self-Healing Organizational Cultures

– Cultures and Countercultures– Lack of collaboration occurs where everyone

works on an authoritarian ‘need to know’ basis – Inflexibility begets inflexibility in the ranks– Leaders set the culture ‘trickle-down’• Authoritarian vs. Collaborative• Creative vs. Organizational• MBO vs. MBC

(c) Nicholas Robinson Design, May 2015 12

Towards Open Governance

• Incentivising self-healing organizational countercultures– Understanding thoughts and feelings as the

determinants of behaviours– Adopting “continuous improvement” as a culture– Understanding Ecosystems– Implementing reward systems• Career progression