Edrem T.

Sarmiento

Seminar 4 March 15,

2018

The Rule of Focused and Independent Ventures:

Elephants Don’t Dance Very Well

An organization must avoid hierarchy, centralization, and bureaucracy because they are
nonsustainable and non-productive functions. An example of this is the Pachomian Fallacy
where the great Pachomius who was able to create his own organization arising from his
followers resulting to a village resulted to a disorganization upon his death. Because of the
numbers of houses and number of leaders who wanted to lead as his successor, all of them who
attempted failed miserably. The organization lost its core upon the death of Pachomius, and not
even one person is qualified to succeed him because all of the other leaders mind their own forte
and non of them actually learned from pachomius. Their reliance upon him on all matters
resulted to the demise of the organization since no one actually adopted his teachings. In a
corporate world the person succeeding must have been trained by the predecessor so that in case
of death, the successor may already have the knowledge of his predecessor. It teaches that the
organization must be lean and flexible at all cost, meaning that it may be able to adopt to any
situation there is that may arise in the future time. That the leaders are equipped of knowledge
and skill so that when the time comes, he may lead them to success and not to failure. Levels of
hierarchy: the rule of three tells us that an administrative hierarchy: the chief executive officer
(the abbot); the executive vice president or second in command (the provost); and one level of
middle management (the deans) must be the core of the organization, this is the only hierarchy
that St. Benedict approves because, the chain of command and the influence of one amongst the
others are well present in this chain. The power is so focused on them and it can easily be passed
down to the successor with sufficient mastery unlike when there are so many leaders, like in
pachomian fallacy, that upon death of the abbot there is a break of chain and that no successor
was able to actually replace him. It is easy to mentor when there is a small group to teach than to
teach in a large group, because in such case there is focus on one person. To which that person
may be able to absorb and learn all the teachings of his mentor. In sum an organization must not
be so large that its control may fail in the future; that an organization must not grow rapidly that
the growth was not monitored on what its strengths and weaknesses are