CONDITIONS FOR BECOMING PEER BASED

An organization can proactively gain the benefit of more productive and meaningful relationships by becoming peer based. Requirements for accomplishing this include the following:

• Ensuring that peer-based thinking becomes the common culture of the organization

• Structuring the organization in a way that promotes peer-based thinking

• Making changes in a way that is not too disruptive, thus avoiding generating a lot of resistance

• Tying the changes into the important areas of organizational decision making

In many ways the changes needed to become a peer-based organization must come from within the organization, not imposed from without. The employees themselves need to be co- creators of the new design, and there is no single right way of doing so. This requires that management not attempt external, rank-based coercion that completely disrupts current operations, but rather adopt methods that allow the gradual emergence of a peer-based culture. They must also ensure that these changes do not become just another management gimmick, but rather authentic changes in the way power and authority are exercised in the organization. Let's examine how this can be done.