The term "Command and Control" is widely attributed to Henri Fayol, not
Frederick Winslow Taylor. See the Wikipedia entry...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fayol

I believe that Fayol developed his 5 point model independently of inspiration
from the only proven large scale management system around - that of the
military. It appears that "to command and control" is what was extracted as a
simplification of the Fayol model.

My experience of senior military people is that they talk of "Command Structure"
not "Command and Control Structure". A Command Structure seeks to control
outcomes within some "terms of engagement" (policies for or constraints upon
behavior).

So when we look to talk of the history of Command and Control, we need to look
to Fayol and not Taylor or the military.

Now I am wondering where this thread is leading, or it time that we buried it?

Regards
David

--- In kanbandev@yahoogroups.com, Scot Mcphee <scot.mcphee@...> wrote:
>
> Hello
>
> I will de-lurk just for a moment to put my oar in. Another point to be
> raised in the "building cars" analogy is that probably one of the most
> famous example of "command and control" culture was the Taylorist system
> adapted and refined by Henry Ford. Certainly it's Taylorism that I think
> of when I see that term.
>
> I still find many aspects of that sort of thinking in software
> development and its associated activities. In essence: "It takes 1 hour
> to write a class. There are 500 classes in the design. It will take 500
> hours. Deviations from the mean of class-writing time will be monitored."
>
> One thing I want to point out about Taylorism is, that it thought it was
> managing a workflow not people. Taylor himself used the terms "process
> management". However it was really a a process that reduced humans to
> inter-replaceable machines within the system; just ones with a
> differential pay scale based on piece rates.
>
> There are many bad effects of this style of management on society in
> general, not just on the companies themselves. By reducing the workforce
> to a series of replaceable units carrying out standardised tasks it has
> enabled the whole notion of "off-shoring" (first manufacturing, now
> knowledge work); and it also reduces both the status of and the need
> for unskilled labour so much that in many western economies there
> persists high unemployment and yet a large immigrant menial workforce,
> with all the attendant social conflict.
>
> --
> http://crazymcphee.net/
>
> > Alan Dayley <mailto:alandd@...>
> > 28 December 2011 03:41
> >
> >
> > One of the ways to help understand a term, practice or idea is to
> > trace it's origins. Understanding the context in which an idea was
> > established can help sometimes.
> >
> > I understand that the term "command and control" originated in a
> > military context. While I could be wrong about this history, I
> > thought it important to point out that the military uses the term in a
> > way more appropriate to Agile thinking than general business users of
> > the term.
> >
> > And we do talk about building cars or at least mentioning companies
> > that do so (Toyota) quite often in this email list.
> >
> > Alan
> >
> >
> > Celso Martins <mailto:celso.av.martins@...>
> > 28 December 2011 03:32
> >
> >
> > I really do not understand why the military context is being raised
> > all the time. We also borrowed the lean/kanban/muda/mura/muri terms
> > from TPS and we are not all the time talking about building cars.
> >
> > Regards.
> >
> > Atenciosamente,
> > Celso Martins
> > celsoavmartins.blogspot.com <http://celsoavmartins.blogspot.com> ->
> > Desenvolvimento Psicopata - Qualidade Total
> > InfoBlogs.com.br <http://infoblogs.com.br/>
> > www.ica-ti.com.br <http://www.ica-ti.com.br/> | ICA-TI
> > http://groups.google.com/group/rioagile/
> > twitter.com/celsoavmartins <http://twitter.com/celsoavmartins>
> > http://br.linkedin.com/in/celsoavmartins
> > ***"Gestores dizendo que as coisas não fluem porque as pessoas não se
> > esforçam é um diagnóstico simplista, preguiçoso e fora da realidade."*
> > by Rodrigo Yoshima.
> >
> >
>