bottom-up

We really hate the term bottom-up when it's used to describe an organization chart. We much prefer the term "foundation". Have you heard of the Dilbert principle? It's when people get promoted one level beyond their competency and get stuck in middle-management purgatory.

Here's the reality. Innovators and early adopters are everywhere. While it's true they're about 16% of the population, we think they are over-represented at the so-called bottom of the org chart (worker). And therefore underrepresented at the top of the org chart (management).

Toyota was on to this, with their Toyota Production System. Toyota genuinely recognized every employee, regardless of their title, as a knowledge worker who was an expert in their job.

"... innovation, almost by definition, has to be decentralized, ad hoc, autonomous, specific and micro-economic. It had better start small, tentative, flexible. Indeed, the opportunities for innovation are found, on the whole, only way down and close to events. They are not to be found in the massive aggregates with which the planner deals of necessity, but in the deviations therefrom..."

- Peter F Drucker,
​Innovation and Entrepreneurship