I was at King Street Station the other day, and read the building’s timeline describing the life of the edifice. In the 1960’s, the crown molding ceiling was covered with a drop ceiling in order to “modernize.” As I read Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody and thought about the “invention” of the institution, the org structure and the way we do business, it reminded me of the “modernization” of the train station. We tried to make something better by throwing the baby out with the bathwater when it came to business. We regressed when it came to collaboration. Caste systems were formed inside corporations. We’ve been “modernizing,” but really going two steps back.
The crown molding at the train station was beautiful, so beautiful that this year they are finally removing the “modernized” drop ceiling to reveal the crown molding again in the city’s restoration efforts. We too are starting to see a restoration effort in business by cutting out middle management, communicating and collaborating in self-made groups, and flattening the hierarchy. I’m glad to see the drop ceiling (aka: big corporations) be ”removed” in a sense to reveal the crown molding!
