C&C

In military jargon, C&C stands for Command and Control. It's a characteristic feature of hierarchical organizations, including governments and corporations, where power flows from the top down.

Command and Control is the antithesis of the kind of organizational culture which people like me thrive in. I prefer the other kind of C&C -- Collegiality and Congeniality.

Three times in my career, I have lived through a jarring culture change in which an organization I was associated with underwent change from my kind of C&C (Collegiality and Congeniality) to the opposite kind (Command and Control).

I do not function well in a Command and Control culture. It stifles my ability to contribute in a creative and innovative way to solve systemic problems.

Twenty-five years ago, I was briefly employed by a Federally-Funded Research and Development Center which did some work for the US government. The division that hired me was called CCCI, which stood for Command, Control, Communication, and Intelligence -- a fancier version of the original military culture of Command and Control. What I longed for was a completely different kind of CCCI -- one that valued Cognition, Comprehension, Consciousness, and Insight.

And now, once again, I long for a return to my kind of C&C -- the culture of collegiality and congeniality in which an otherwise hopeless academic can thrive in a culture that values creativity and innovation.