“Instead of a single weak link, according to Perrow, the real problem was the complexity of the technical system and the complexity of the organization responsible for its operation.”

“I thought I was a great problem solver, but I just realized I’ve been solving the same problem every day for twenty years!”

“However, by seeing problems and solving them in an accelerated fashion, Alcoa was building process knowledge that was not only hard won, but also scarce and proprietary—unavailable to outsiders who did not make the same efforts.”

“see a problem, solve a problem, share what you have learned”

“I came to appreciate that the leader of a large organization does have tremendous power, but much of it is of a destructive nature.’

“We’ve got to create a knowledge base...and of course that never works”

“The knowledge base is largely empty and whatever is in there you wouldn’t want to take out anyway...it is a monument to futility!”

(When does it work? You need someone who is an active manager who sweats the details—worries about the community, its boundaries, incentives, its content and its medium.)

“This is rooted in: designing work to see problems as they occur, solving them so ignorance at their root is turned into deep knowledge, incorporating newfound knowledge locally and systemically, and leading by developing others relentlessly.”

(Spear might say: typical primate dominance games are fun and all, but the most effective cultures aren’t just looking for right or wrong but to relentlessly stamp out ignorance.)

"Conventional wisdom is that you need to empower the workforce because they know the answer...but if they know the answers why do they have the same problems?”

“It is not that people doing the work always know the answer. But they know the problem--and they can validate the answer...and your customers can do the same thing."

Steve Spear makes a great case for having the discipline to declare what you expect to happen, the discipline to find out you're wrong quickly, and then to tell everyone immediately. It is profound--and all the forces of the culture seem to ask us to do exactly the opposite.