Organizations are like nectarines: sweet stuff on the outside, pit in the middle. The workers at the outer layer of the innerarchy directly deliver the organization’s value to the customer. Then the workers on the inner layers, non-operative staffers, coordinate and support the outer layers. The pit-workers support and coordinate so that sweet-workers are sweet as they can be, and so there’s as much sweet stuff for the customer as possible.
In this sense, all bosses are “pit bosses.” They work in the inner layers of the innerarchy, the pit-part not the sweet-part. The fire chief never hoses the fire. The military general never fires a rifle. The coach never makes a basket. Bosses are fruitful only to the extent that they fruitfully influence the behaviors of the operatives, those hosing the fire, firing the rifle, making the basket.
Don’t get me wrong. Bosses are necessary. Whenever a group sets out after a goal that can’t be accomplished as individuals, someone needs to coordinate. To pursue larger-scale group goals, we need pit-work. But we only need it to the extent that it makes the sweet workers more fruitful. If the efforts of a boss aren’t contributing real support and coordination to the sweet workers, the boss isn’t contributing real value to the organization.
