Did that require top-down direction? You can, in fact, generate nationwide programs with local offices doing strikingly similar things without top-down direction. The combination of a monoculture plus a policy direction that lower-level staffers believe in is often sufficient to make it happen. We have extensive experience of this in tech and finance, as discussed later.

Japanese has a beautiful world, sontaku, for the attitude and actions a diligent subordinate would take without his superior’s explicit instruction, believing them to anticipate his boss’ desires. Sontaku is a core skill in the American professional class. People possessing it are sometimes described as “motivated self-starters”, “high-agency”, “bold”, ”takes initiative”, ”acts like an owner”, etc.