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Clandestine Cells

My latest analogy is comparing the business that I am in to a clandestine cell system. By definition, a clandestine cell - "only accounting for the leadership, can also be viewed topologically as a ring or chain network, with each leader/node heading their own particular hierarchy" [paraphrasing Wikipedia].

As I look across my profession, this is what I see - right or wrong. Let me go through a checklist as I continue to read the supporting paragraph in Wikipedia:

  1.  "Such networks function by having their sub-networks provide information and other forms of support (the ‘many-to-one’ model), while the core group supplies ‘truth’ (of interpretation of [said religion] in this case—spiritual and political) and decisions/directions (the ‘one-to-many’ model)." Check
  2. "Trust and personal relationships are an essential part of the [said group] network (a limiting factor, even while it provides enhanced security)." Affirmative
  3. "Even while cell members are trained as ‘replaceable’ units, ‘vetting’ of members occurs during the invited training period under the observation of the core group." Dead on
It's amazing how there only a finite set of structures or models, and how you relate work to some crazy ones. But I think that's what makes it fun.



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