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well physically. Ironically, it is to that need that for atavistic reasons many “how” companies still cater, although their environments more closely resemble George Orwell’s Animal Farm than Joronen’s. Employees are people with universal human needs. For them, being treated well includes access to “universal information,” knowledge, and more. Indeed, what Koski didn’t mention about information hoarding is the conceit implicit in it—that the information possessed at the top, or the center, is the most valuable, and is therefore worthy of protection and secrecy. Eventually, it is trickled down in meager drips and drabs to people on the frontlines on a need-to-know basis—a fetish at traditional “how” companies and a running joke among their frontline people. The flip side of this is that the information that only the frontline employee possesses—about the myriad ways in which his time or materials are wasted during the day, or the aspects of the company that most irk customers, driving them away—is deemed not worth knowing or listening to. Withholding information from people about decisions that affect them prevents them from offering input and a chance to improve the decisions made at the top.

If David Kelley hadn’t informed everyone about his idea to move the company down by the freeway, he would certainly have done it, saving a buck but losing the immersion in the urban environment that his designers believed was critical to their work and success. He would also have had to herd them there. Instead, IDEO’s leaders always inform and consult employees about important “destination” decisions. Once the decisions are accepted and shared, employees are invited to organize for themselves how to reach the destination. Most of the time they succeed, which means that, perhaps, a free environment does enable people “to fly in formation.” Zobrist, for one, was convinced that they can. He compared FAVI not to butterflies but to birds:

A cloud of starlings can be composed of hundreds of thousands of individuals. But when a hawk is near, the whole flock reacts instantly, as if it were one bird! A complicated system, with a boss, information relays, [and] even with decisions delegated close to the field, would not be able to react so swiftly. Indeed, two simple rules guide [the] cloud’s functioning: (1) every bird constantly watches out to never collide with her immediate neighbors; (2) when the danger is near, the threatened birds dive into the cloud’s center, provoking immediate movement of the whole flock.13

Zobrist cautioned, “But if one of these two rules is not respected, the system collapses into chaos.” He concluded: “Chaos is characteristic of systems incapable of establishing complicated rules, or of respecting the simple ones.” Indeed, complicated rules-based “how” systems do function, and sometimes they are so big that the drag the rules have on their forward progress isn’t easy to perceive. But, as we’ve seen, the alternative to “how” systems is not anarchy or chaos. It’s freedom, provided everyone—or nearly everyone—shares the destination and agrees on a few simple rules. Just watch a flock of starlings overhead.

HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOT RECTANGLES

There is no reason that “universal information” access cannot or should not be maintained over time and independent of changes of ownership. It clearly meets any reasonable test of a sustainable practice, one that is not dependent on personality or any particular leader within a company. While a new boss can decide to start withholding information that affects the people below her, the practice of sharing all information with the people who are affected by it can be embedded in any company’s culture.

Of course, information access alone doesn’t make a company or its culture sustainable. People must also be able to act on what they know to advance the company’s goals. Some liberated companies, such as W. L. Gore & Associates, take a radical approach to ensuring this freedom of action over time. By eschewing titles and jobs in favor of commitments, Gore frees its associates in