The Web of Inclusion
by By Helgesen, Sally
Category: Business & Economics , Total Quality Management

The twenty-first century economy is fluid, technology-driven, based on creativity and relationships. Yet most businesses and organizations are still structured like nineteenth-century factories, forcing workers into cookie cutter roles. The model Sally Helgesen puts forth in The Web of Inclusion represents a fully realized vision of the information-age organization: the web of inclusion. A web is natural, organic, not modeled on a machine. Like a spider's web, a web of inclusion is both a structure and an ever-evolving process, constantly changing to meet the demands of the business environment.Building a web of inclusion means that ideas come from all employees, not just from the top down; that what individuals do in the workplace depends on their talents, not on their titles; that a premium is placed on flexibility; that the edges of the web of inclusion connect with people outside the organization: customers, suppliers, joint-venture partners, the mass media.Helgesen lays out the theory behind her provocative vision of a new style of management, then profiles five organizations that have achieved extraordinary success by adopting webs of inclusion: the hi-tech Intel in Silicon Valley; the Miami Herald, a traditional media company; Beth Israel Hospital in Boston; Nickelodeon in New York; and Anixter Inc., a cable and wire vendor based in Chicago. Each profile vividly demonstrates a different advantage of the web of inclusion.