I believe it was toonalfrink who once visited a buddhist monastery where “promotion” was based almost entirely on seniority – there are particular tests you had to pass, but basically there was no way to advance faster based on “merit”.
And this meant that a lot of squabbling that normally dominates large institutions wasn’t present – there was no way to game the system, just show up and put in the time. And this worked okay because the point of the system was not to innovate, but to keep doing the exact same things that had been done previously for hundreds of years.
I don’t think that actually works for many of the goals I think of as important, but it was eye opening to realize there were totally different ways you could orient an organizational culture.
I believe it was toonalfrink who once visited a buddhist monastery where “promotion” was based almost entirely on seniority – there are particular tests you had to pass, but basically there was no way to advance faster based on “merit”.
And this meant that a lot of squabbling that normally dominates large institutions wasn’t present – there was no way to game the system, just show up and put in the time. And this worked okay because the point of the system was not to innovate, but to keep doing the exact same things that had been done previously for hundreds of years.
I don’t think that actually works for many of the goals I think of as important, but it was eye opening to realize there were totally different ways you could orient an organizational culture.