Bringing a large, complex organization into the future means breaking some industrial age patterns of thinking. One such pattern is that every organization needs a hierarchical organization chart. For membership organizations like ASEE, they need a blended organization, a loose hierarchy or a managed network. Here are some thoughts bout how to move in this direction.

1. Membership
Sta!
The current organization chart for ASEE is overwhelming. Can we think about redesigning
the organization to be more open, "exible and connected?
The analogy of a circuit board can
help explain what a redesign
might look like. The current
organizational parts of ASEE are
only loosely connected, they
operate more like a pile of parts.
By sliding a circuit board under
this pile of parts, we can create
more numerous and stable
connections.
The complexity of the membership
organization also taxes the sta! and
makes their job more di#cult.
To explore what a new organizational
structure for ASEE might look like, we
have consulted with our colleagues at
Fraunhofer in Germany. They have
suggested that a new organization
structure (the circuit board) might start
with a template like this one.
The sta! hierarchy would remain
largely in tact, but with design changes
to support the new membership
organization design.
Source: Antonino Ardillio, Fraunhofer IAO and Ed Morrison, Purdue University