Theory of management developed by Stafford Beer, a unit within an organization is allowed to operate autonomously as long as it didn’t imperil the larger system. Bargains are made by higher management to with these units to accomplish goals in exchange for resources (headcount, budget, etc). This bargains are expected to be kept unless situations change at which point they re-negotiated. This system is not based on control or delegation, rather it is about accountability between different parts of a business1.
Dan Davies 1
It’s a concept that might be most easily illustrated by thinking of a military platoon that’s given an objective – to capture a bridge, say. There is a higher level of the hierarchy that is responsible for coming up with objectives, fitting them into an overall battle plan and making sure that different platoons don’t get in the way of each other. But once the orders are given, capturing the bridge is the responsibility of the platoon, using the soldiers and equipment assigned to the task. The general doesn’t keep on managing the attack; the next piece of communication he or she expects is either that the bargain has been kept (the bridge is captured), or that some external factor has interfered, and the resource bargain needs to be renegotiated by the survivors.
1. Davies, D. The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions – and How the World Lost Its Mind. (Profile Books Ltd, 2024).