Prediction Markets Redux - Yahoo Confab

In looking through my notes from the Yahoo PM confab, I saw some intriguing bits and pieces gathered from all of the PM practitioners there I did not speak to in my original post.

It would seem that PM's, as with any new process that threatens the status quo and embedded processes, get the most push back and lack of acceptance from those in the middle tiers of an organization. The top-tier really like PM's because they get essentially unfiltered information, knowledge, analysis and opinions from the first-tier, and the first-tier likes them because they get a direct venue to those in the top-tier. The mid-tier (read middle management here) are the ones who are generally (but as in all generalizations not always)the ones most opposed to PM's, and are the most threatened (a perceived threat to be sure, but sometimes very real nonetheless) by them, for the very same reasons the others really like them.

This is true, again in general, within any organization trying to use or implement new processes and or changes. The new ways threaten the perceived role of the mid-tier professionals, who see as part of their roles the gathering of information and the feeding of knowledge, analysis and opinion up to the top tier (read senior management here). They see their role and influence (and yes, power) being reduced whenever they are put out of the loop. You can read any number of essays, books, papers, etc. about this, but it happens, and it happens in almost all organizations, public, private, government agencies, etc. In these same publications you can also read many tools and techniques to avoid this, or actually use management jujitsu to turn it around.

But what was striking in the confab was the absence of any awareness of these ideas. Perhaps they are aware of them and just did not have time to speak to them, or, perhaps not. As an example, I wonder what would happen if within the organizations that said they were having the most trouble with this real issue tried to enroll the mid-tier into using the PM as a key business tool, sponsoring the tool, and understanding what they had to gain by doing so? Anyone had any experience in doing this?