A Multidisciplinary Lens on Burning Man

Burning Man is counter to the mainstream management practices of Silicon Valley. I have attended so many gatherings of humans over the years and across the globe - been at countless conferences, musical events, gaming events, religious gatherings, county fairs, etc.

But, Burning Man is fundamentally different from my past experiences! The principles that underpin the gathering and philosophy behind it is fascinating, to say the least.

~70000 people meet in the middle of a desert known for high temperatures & dust storms, build a city, have fun, self-sustain themselves for a week and leave no trace behind at the end of it all.

Here is a small glimpse of what happens in that week…

In many ways, I’d compare it to riding a bike. Reading about Burning Man is like reading books about how to ride a bike. But, nothing compares to actually riding a bike! I’m positive that your opinions and preconceived ideas about Burning Man are radically transformed when you actually attend it.

Burning Man calls itself as ‘a network of people’ inspired by the values reflected in the Ten Principles and united in the pursuit of a more creative and connected existence in the world. Here are its Ten Principles:

• Radical Inclusion

• Gifting

• Decommodification

• Radical Self-reliance

• Radical Self-expression

• Communal Effort

• Civic Responsibility

• Leaving No Trace

• Participation

• Immediacy

Beyond that, the founders didn’t write down anymore rules or regulations. The ten principles were also written down only after several years of the gathering. More importantly, they were written in a descriptive manner (as to what behaviors were observed to be valued at Burning Man) and not in a prescriptive manner.

I’m sure that Burning Man has been interpreted many times in the past. But, here is my multidisciplinary lens on Burning Man. It is such a kaleidoscopic gathering where no two experiences are the same! Let me begin this post with one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite systems thinkers, Russell Ackoff:

Table of Contents

• Immediacy: Walk the Gemba!

• Efficiency Last

• Requisite Variety

• Do-ocracy

• Emergence

• Message from the Universe

• Zen Story

Immediacy: Walk the Gemba!

When I first read the Ten Principles, “Immediacy” stood out for me. I could guess what the first nine meant - but, I couldn’t guess what the last one meant and why it was SO important to be on the Ten Principles. Here’s what it says:

Wow! This is true - you can’t write down the philosophy of Burning Man. You have to experience it. At Burning Man, action is the fundamental unit of meaning. Not written words. That’s why the immediate experience is prioritized. I truly felt it when I was there…

For example, there were camps gifting free food and drinks (they need a food license and have to be compliant with prevailing law at all times). Most of the people who worked there did it with a warm and welcoming smile. They truly wanted us to have a good time - bartenders would strike a conversation, make jokes and get the good vibes going. People fix your broken bike for free, etc.

No money! No tipping! These human interactions were not mediated by money.

This got me thinking, how many people would call someone a leader if they were not paid to do so? Now, let’s take this idea to the workplace…

Great leaders ‘read the room’ and more importantly ‘walk the gemba’! They truly want to create an environment in which people can come and do the best work of their lives. They don’t rob the autonomy and agency of their people - they value their true lived experience at the company.

They don’t just manage by numbers. They are keenly aware of the emotions and passions of their people - they can intuitively read their facial expressions and body language.

In large corporations, people on the ground have very little autonomy and agency. Policies are set in stone someplace else - but, they are oblivious to the sheer variety of ‘edge cases’ on the ground that don’t fit into their “ideal” model of getting things done. The person on the ground becomes helpless and lose their agency even though they want to do the right thing - for a customer or even a fellow employee.

Do folks in the C-Suite realize how autonomy and agency has been robbed from their people on the ground?

Efficiency Last

Silicon Valley is “Efficiency First”! But, nature is not. As the saying goes, a flower is a weed with a marketing budget. It may not be efficient, but it is certainly effective.

Nature doesn’t “optimize” everything - it builds redundancies. Take the example of our own body: we have two lungs, two kidneys, two eyes and so on.

One of the dominant paradigms from the industrial era is the idea that management’s primary focus was to do things in a predictable/repeatable fashion at an ever increasing rate of efficiency and scale. But, complexity destroyed that paradigm.

Innovation necessitates slack in the system. But, efficiency eliminates it. We are squeezing efficiencies across all layers of abstraction - individual, team, department, business unit, cost center, etc. Story points based “velocity” metrics, “Say vs Do” metrics, Packed calendars, Profit margin, etc.

Let’s look at the individual level as an example: Nobody should have any free time! The modern day irony of “knowledge workers” not having time to sit down and think!

Some of our best ideas come to us while taking a stroll or in the shower. Thinking requires free time without being bothered by others.The first idea that pops into my head is usually wrong. But, the more I think about it, it becomes less wronger.

Having a packed day with no free time is certainly efficient, but we have to question if it is really effective.

In our blind chasing of efficiency, we also try to standardize and centralize tooling and processes. This in turn results in less and less innovation.

But, Burning Man doesn’t prioritize efficiency. I mean, carrying tons of gear to the middle of a desert just for one week and carrying it all back by itself is not a very efficient activity in the first place.

But, the end result is a lot of creativity, beauty, art and more variety in general. Does that mean there can be no efficiency or process improvements? Absolutely not!

Let’s talk about those two topics next...

Requisite Variety

Cybernetics is interested in all of the possibilities of a phenomenon (i.e., what all it can do) rather than what the phenomenon actually is. The possibilities align with the number of possible states of the phenomenon.

Stafford Beer explained variety as the measure of complexity of a phenomenon. The more distinctions an observer can make, the higher the perceived complexity.

The external environment always has a much higher variety than the controller. Therefore, in order to manage a complex situation, the controller has to be able to come up with enough variety to match the variety of the situation. This is also known as Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety, a central idea in cybernetics. Simply put, Ashby’s Law states: