Stephen Downes

Nice little video (starts off as a white blank screen but stay with it) describing the different between a hierarchical company and a connected, or 'holarchic' company. In the former, tasks are divided, and each person has a designated area of responsibility. In the latter, "every part is authorized to represent the whole," and does this by linking to and communicating with other parts of the company. Hierarchies are good for stable processes like manufacturing, while holarchies are more suited to more chaotic processes such as customer service. It's interesting, from my perspective, to think of systems of educational management (such as top-down curricular initiatives) that are hierarchical, as compared to more holarchic teacher-driven models.