Abstract: Organizational coordination theories in western worlds share a common assumption that a balance between the overall efficiency and individual benefits is a must. It is demonstrated, however, by carefully reviewing the history of leprosy and malaria epidemic preventions that, other modes of coordination beyond the market mechanisms can also be achieved. In so-called “Great Battles”, workgroups with limited power and responsibility, along with the site meetings and training seminars they organized, played an important role in the bottom-up selection and top-down diffusion of the “best practices”. Responding to the societal challenges directly and getting rid of sectionalism, additionally, meet the principle of disinterestedness at large that is urgently needed for scientific development. Diffusion-oriented achievements can be thus found in mission-oriented projects like these. Those are the historical experiences that we have to face properly.