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Enabling people to tap their collective intelligence
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How on earth did we think it was possible to create a successful free market, if the society in which the market exists does not practice the same principles? Limited Government only works if it is applied to both our economic interests and our social interests 'at the same time'.
Yet for forty years we largely only applied limited government to our economic interests, not society as a whole. And out of this one-sided approach problems arise like the growing divide between the have's and the have not's.
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| Rising income and wealth inequality |
Since the implementation of free market economics (deregulation), the number of laws (regulations) imposed on the market and industry has decreased as planned. Meanwhile the number of laws imposed on the social affairs of our everyday lives continues to increase - rising traffic laws and fines, public permit regulation, and online surveillance etc. This is empowering for our economic interests, but disempowering for our social interests.
Our society is like a person at the gym who only pumps weights on one side of their body. After forty years of free market economics we now have these huge muscles in our arms and legs on one side, and skinny little arms and legs on the other side. This is what's making us walk around in circles, increasingly dividing us as a society.
Like working out at the gym or practicing yoga, society functions best when all aspects of it are given an equality of care and opportunity. And this includes the opportunities provided by limited government.
Tapping our collective intelligence
Applying the principles of limited government to our social lives is not such a radical idea. Our world is already shifting itself this way naturally from the bottom up, through a global cultural transformation. But these practices are yet to be implemented at the state and national levels of politics. Instead this new practice is being cultivated across the world in electronic music culture, startup culture, the social web, and urban design in recent decades with extraordinary achievements. For the sake of storytelling, it's what I'll describe here as limited governance.
Limited governance is similar to limited government, but is practiced in any social context, political or otherwise. It can be applied to governments, management, teachers, parents, festivals, or town planning etc. Limited governance is about limiting the governance of a person or organisation in any position of authority, one step at a time. This enables and empowers people to take more responsibility for themselves and each other, and in turn contribute more to the direction of the group as a whole. Here are a few examples of how limited governance is practiced around the world today:
1. Electronic Music Culture:
Traditionally, event organisers are entirely responsible for pre-programming the music, art and performance at events, while the people who attended are essentially passive observers of the entertainment. Over the past couple of decades however, organisers of electronic music festivals such as Burningman, Boom, Mythopoeia, Rainbow Serpent, Psycorroboree and Exodus experimented with interactive gatherings. These events involve thousands of people adding to and collaborating together to create the experience as a whole.
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| Burningman 2016 - by Andrew Jorgensen |
To achieve this, electronic music event organisers intentionally limit their own interference over what happens during the event. Instead they invite people attending to contribute with their own theme camps, music, installation art, performances, workshops, games and more. Rather than the events being limited by the imagination of only a few decision makers, electronic music festivals and events tap into the collective intelligence of the crowd. This in turn unleashes the collaborative creativity of thousands of people at a time.
By reducing the impact of a governing voice, it enables these types of events to take on a life of their own. Organisers learn new ways to let go of control. People attending gain a sense of belonging and ownership in the experience. And electronic music culture becomes larger and more sophisticated than any small group of people could possibly imagine.
2. Shared Spaces:
Shared spaces is an urban design approach developed by the Dutch engineer and urban planner Hans Monderman. And is currently practiced in a few suburbs and towns around the world. The purpose of shared spaces is to implement safer environments for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles to travel together without the traditional safety infrastructure to guide them. This is done by removing regulated features such as curbs, road surface markings, traffic signs and traffic lights in a designated area such as a street or an intersection. The idea is that once these controls (regulations) are taken away, it creates an air of ambiguity in which people become more alert of their surrounding environment and ultimately more cooperative.
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| Share Space - Bohmte, Germany |
In 2008 the German town of Bohmte (population: 13,000) took the concept of shared spaces to the next level by scrapping all traffic lights, stop signs, give way signs and all other warning signs across the entire town. The results were astounding. The townsfolk report they no longer have traffic jams, drivers drive slower and more carefully, cyclists praise how drivers are more considerate, and most importantly there are half as many accidents. Locals who used to have to wait at the traffic lights in town say they can now simply drive straight through. And surprisingly after getting rid of traffic lights and signs, the village atmosphere returned.
By this living example, Bohmte shows us that throwing away the rule book intentionally by design opens up the space for culture to grow. By limiting governance, individual drivers now stay more alert and think for themselves, while the people of the town connect more with each other as a community.
3. Social Web:
The web by its very nature, is a more decentralised and collaborative platform, less dependent on central governing forces to dictate its direction. The most popular social platforms online, such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, Flickr, Last.fm, Etsy, Instagram, Snapchat and Soundcloud, are successful because they tap into this collaborative behaviour.
A web platform is defined by Jeff Jarvis as a base of support that enables people to build businesses and communities on top of. Platforms can only be formed if the original founders intentionally design themselves out of the picture and enable constant creators and users to come together around shared interests. Youtube for example, is for people who 'make' and 'watch' video. The Youtube founders could have chosen to control and curate the content people watch, like almost every other video website at the time. Instead, they intentionally set up an interactive framework (platform) which enabled anyone to create and publish their own videos. In this way, the people get to choose what gets made, shown and watched, without the restrictions of a small body of people making these decisions for them.
By limiting the interference of the founders, Youtube users can now build video channels, news shows, web series and other businesses and communities on top of the Youtube platform on a scale never seen before until the formation of the social web.
4. Startup culture:
Startup culture continues to grow alongside the decentralised and collaborative environment of the web. To become more collaborative themselves web startup companies had to find ever increasing ways to move beyond the limitations of rigid hierarchical structures. Through trial and error, startups found that applying what I'd call limited governance to their company culture in may varied ways, enabled them to tap into the collaborative intelligence of their teams and build successful startup company cultures.
For example, as part of the Netflix company culture, management limit their interference by favouring a results driven approach rather than process driven. Instead of following traditional business practices and enforcing a set of processes by which their employees must follow, Netflix emphasise a context of freedom and responsibility. Netflix achieves this by defining and refining a set of principles and behaviours upon which their company culture is based. So long as their team respects the principles and achieves great results, each team member can follow whatever processes work for them individually.
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| Zappos implemented a system of 'No Management' |
Another example is Zappos, the world's largest online shoe and clothing store. Recently Zappos took the practice of limited governance to the next level and now experiment with 'No Management'. They decided to replace the old corporate structure for something altogether new. No managers, no job titles, no hierarchy. To do this the Zappos team of 1,500 are now organised into what is called a holacracy - a system of self-management for organisations. A holacracy replaces the traditional management hierarchy with a transparent peer-to-peer approach, distributing authority among everyone in the team. A 'no-management' structure empowers all employees to take on a leadership role and self-direct their work rather than report to a manager who tells them what to do. Plus, everyone in a holacracy, including the CEO, is bound by the same set of rules and principles, visible to all.
By practicing limited governance techniques such as these, startup entrepreneurs discovered they can nurture networked teams that pool their knowledge and insights. This creates a kind of unified intelligence that can think smarter and innovate more effectively together. It also empowers each member to effectively help run the business and feel personally responsible for it's success. It is this force and cultural foundation that helps startups and web companies rapidly build highly innovative businesses around special interests, and grow millions of users in only a few years. And from an economic perspective, collective intelligence is now a new form of currency.
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The social and cultural practices around electronic music culture, urban design, startups and the social web have only been able to succeed in this way if the people in positions of power make the first move and intentionally limit their interference. But this does not simply mean, stepping back and walking away. It does mot mean for example, that governments can simply apply deregulation, then walk off as if this in itself is the marker of success. Limited governance requires the government, the manager, the teacher, the festival organiser or the parents to leave in place a legacy, a culture, a foundation of engagement and support. This acts as a platform designed to maintain and encourage the constituents, the team, the students, the attendees, the family to embrace more responsibility for themselves and each other well into the future, long after the authority has 'left the building'.
Where to from here?
"The chief psychological chore of the 21st century: letting go with dignity"
- Kevin Kelly, Out Of Control, 1994
With the practice of limited governance, local, state and national governments have an opportunity to learn new ways to 'let go', to limit their interference over our social lives as well and provide an equality of opportunity for everyone regardless of their interests. Limited governance provides governments with a set of tools to help guide us towards a more deregulated and empowered society, one step at a time. Out of this we will see a deregulated economy finally working for everyone, as free as possible from excessive income and wealth inequality.
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Call to action
If you have practiced a form of limited governance in your home, community, workplace or town, tell us what happened. What worked or didn't work? Do you know of other examples around the world in which people practice these principles in their own way? And let me know what you think of limited governance as a potential long-term solution for overcoming problems in society today.
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