We all need heroes. During October 2010, we got many. On Oct 13, the entire world cheered! After more than two months entombed half a mile beneath the Chilean desert, the last of 33 trapped miners was pulled to safety. Not only were the 33 hailed as heroes, so were the hundreds of individuals and firms from around the world you united to save them. Amazing story that many of us will remember forever!

At the time, the entire world was focused on all the ways those behind-the-scenes heroes help. From oil-drillers lending their expertise to how to go get them, to manufacturers of the capsule that brought them out, to iPods sent down fully loaded with Elvis and lots more…even to the psychologists helping them deal with the effects of long-term entrapment. NASA was even called it for its experience in helping crew members deal with long periods of isolation while in outer space.

At least those were the official stories.

Later, after the men were saved, we learned how those official strategies and tools were hacked.

Drugs were smuggled down to them in letters from wives, girlfriends (sometimes both), and friends.

Porn was also smuggled down to them because officials were not dealing with their “greatest need” after air, food and water.

Yes, the official channels of tools, support, discipline and structure were absolutely necessary.

But so were the underground channels…the hacks. Those 33 men made sure to workaround the system to get their needs met.

Maybe there’s something we can all learn from these heroes?

Josh and I wrote Hacking Work to help push for changes in power and control in workplaces because our tools and infrastructure have become more bossy than our bosses, and that has to change. Two recent trips shine a light on the fact that sometimes the transition can get messy. Nevertheless it’s time to get on with it.

While in the UK recently, I witnessed the launch of a five year celebration honoring the Magna Carta, the Great Charter of Freedoms.

The Magna Carta is arguably one of the most significant documents in history in establishing obligations and freedoms between those in power and the populous. A century and a half after William the Conqueror centralized and organized power in England the monarchy had grown so powerful that the land-owners revolted. In 1215, their Magna Carta laid the foundation for many future bills of rights, constitutions, and limitations and responsibilities for those in power.

I have also had the opportunity to view one of the original copies, made in 1297, in Australia’s Parliament House. Given the significance of this document, I assumed I would encounter crowds of people and armed guards. Instead, I saw it by myself in a hallway viewing area that seemed more fit for a high school science project, which was right next to a coat check room, with a hurricane sound in the background from one of those industrial blowers because there was a leak in the ceiling a few feet from the document and the carpet was soaked.

Expect that kind of Magna Carta-ish experience when discussing how corporate senior executives will need to transition from today’s approaches to business to infrastructures that are as user(worker)-centered as they are corporate-centered. Important and meaningful conversations, but also pedestrian, messy, noisy, and not a lot of reverence. Within those noisy discussions are certain to be pearls of wisdom — hard-won advice from your fellow hackers on how to bring about much-needed changes.

Bring on the noise!

SIDE TRIP
About The Magna Carta
> The Magna Carta, meaning Great Charter, is not just one document. It is a number of them, from different dates, all referred to under the same collective name
> Publication has its origins in a dispute between King John and English barons, and it went some way towards limiting the king’s authority
> The first document was sealed – not signed – in 1215 by King John at Runnymede. The final one was issued in 1300
> 17 versions survive from the 13th Century
> The charter guaranteed basic freedoms and property rights to “free men”
> The Magna Carta was re-negotiated on four occasions within the first decade of its existence, as both the king and England’s earls, bishops and barons all attempted to redefine its terms

I am sitting in a hotel room in Parma, Italy. CNN is on in the background, talking about Finland legislating mandatory Internet access for all its citizens. 1 Mb broadband Net access is a citizen’s RIGHT! Access to 21st century tools is now becoming as critical to one’s health and welfare as running water and electricity, sez friend of HW, social media consultant Deanna Zandt, during the CNN interview. Net access is becoming critical to all of us in the industrialized world. Which leads right into all that Josh and I are writing about in Hacking Work…

One of the key practices that single-handedly can build or destroy an organization and its people: Access to the best and right tools to do the job, to understand the job, the goals, the strategy and others and to communicate to others. Are user-centered tools (the user being the worker) a most basic and fundamental right of every corporate citizen?

With the right tools anybody can do anything and everything. Without the right tools, we are all hampered, diminished, and our ability to succeed is greatly reduced. Without the right tools, all work is harder and little of it is smarter. With the right tools, anything is possible. What do you think? Are the right tools to do one’s best a right?

Josh and Bill discuss how all babies were born to hack — discovering innovation and creativity by taking things apart and putting them together again. HBR blogger Rasika Welankiwar writes how we were so much smarter as babies…with built-in protections to keep us learning. Unfortunately, we all grew up and learned the “right way” to learn is to sit in neat little rows and follow an authority figure. Hacking, bad. Tsk, tsk. Follow the leader, good. Gold star!

Wal-Mart executives’ 2009 retirement plans GREW 6.6% while their millions of employees’ plans LOST 18%! This disparity is not unique. According to multiple studies, this is happening to most employees and executives. Why hack? Because risk is not distributed evenly or fairly. You are probably bearing lots of marketplace risks while your boss’s boss is cushioned from those same risks.

Bill and Josh are promoting benevolent hacking — bypassing stupid rules for the good of your company, your team and your customers.

There’s also malicious hacking. Bad people doing bad things. Unfortunately, it’s also easy for them to hack — as evidenced by Iranian-backed insurgents that just breached $billions of U.S. drone-based military operations with $29.95 worth of off the shelf software, and by the Russian cyber gang suspected of stealing tens of millions from Citibank.

Let’s be sure we use the power of hacking for good, not evil!