Munafo Core Values: MCV14 — Favour Heterarchy

Favour Heterarchy

"Heterarchies" are a broad category of interconnections between people and groups in society, meant to include anything that does not follow top-down hierarchical organisation.

In social organisation, hierarchies arise naturally through the growth of the organisation. This can be through physical means, such as the growth of a family over the course of several generations. More often growth arises through the spreading of cultural phenomena through people who join or otherwise become incorporated into the social organisation in question.

For example, a company manifests a set of ideas, skills, techniques, policies and procedures (all cultural phenomena) that are cupportive of that company's business, its products and services, its interactions with the rest of the world, etc. As the company grows, new employees (or associates, volunteers, etc.) gain that culture through onboarding and learning from established members of the company; and for operational reasons or for efficiency, etc. the company's people will subdivide into sub-groups, which then might subdivide and so on, and leading to a multi-level organisation. The lines of communication within an original smaller group are replaced by hierarchical lines of communication reflecting the structure of division and subdivision. These might be used for the propagation of new ideas from their originator to the culture of the whole, as in an idea petitioning the world.

By contrast, heterarchical lines of communication include any that occur between members of the company and those outside the company, or any direct communication between members of the company of two different sub-groups, etc..

Heterarchies have been increasingly significant throughout the development of technology-driven changes — particularly those technologies facilitating communication and enabling more flexible lifestyles.

Contributors to Heterarchical Communication

Mobility

Cheaper and more convenient travel alternatives, with as streetcars and public buses, enable people to have jobs and non-work activities farther from home, enabling people to meet (and thereby communicate with) a greater variety of social groups.

Telephone

The most obvious in recent times has been the development of telephones enabling people to talk with others outside their immediate vicinity without the need to travel. Unbiquitous telephones, public phones, etc. made it gradually more convenient, and mobile phones eventually became available. The mobile phone in particular enabled talking with someone at home whilst away from home, eliminating one of the disadvantages of mobile lifestyle.

Internet

The use of computers to communicate introduced modes of communication (such as email) that were slower then the telephone, and often more prone to misunderstanding. However, the involvement of computers (and therefore of automated organization, online search, etc.) allows people to find each other based on common interests, with less work involved.

Subverting Authority

Hierarchical structures often make it difficult for ideas to be spread. For example, a chain of restaurants might be having difficulty with a particular procedural detail, such as how to efficiently handle customers waiting to be seated. If one location comes up with an innovative solution, the idea will only benefit the other locations if the management structure allows the idea to be communicated "up" to the central office and then back "down" to individual restaurants. However, if someone in the Boston location knows someone in the Chocago location, they could just share the idea directly. Then Chicago benefits from the innovation without the central office's "permission".

"Exploit" as an Attitude

Instead of Favour, this Core Value formerly was "Exploit Heterarchies". The old wording is still intended, as subtext of the current wording. The word exploit is somewhat provocative and suggests a subversive act. It is meant as a reminder that communication through inter-group cross-connections is not natural for some people, and can be particularly unnatural within certain components of society. Nevertheless, one should strive to have communication with people apart from those who are your immediate peers (within a team) or directly above or below you in a hierarchy.

MCV14 for Teams

When this core value is present:

The team engages in activities with other team(s) outside its own "division". (+mcv14a)

The team engages in activities with organisations aside from the team's own organisation — such as a softball team playing for a charity. (+mcv14b)

When this core value is lacking:

The team does all its activities only within its own "division" or "league", etc. (-mcv14a)

The team does all its activities only within its own organisation. (-mcv14b)

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This page was written in the "embarrassingly readable" markup language RHTF, and was last updated on 2025 Jul 17.

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