32 books
—
31 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness” as Want to Read:
Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness
by
FROM THE BACKCOVER
The way we manage organizations seems increasingly out of date. Deep inside, we sense that more is possible. We long for soulful workplaces, for authenticity, community, passion, and purpose.
In this groundbreaking book, the author shows that every time, in the past, when humanity has shifted to a new stage of consciousness, it has achieved extraordinary b ...more
The way we manage organizations seems increasingly out of date. Deep inside, we sense that more is possible. We long for soulful workplaces, for authenticity, community, passion, and purpose.
In this groundbreaking book, the author shows that every time, in the past, when humanity has shifted to a new stage of consciousness, it has achieved extraordinary b ...more
Get A Copy
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Reinventing Organizations,
please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness
I’m not sure I’ve ever been so annoyed by a book that taught me so much. Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organizations is, in some ways, exactly what it claims to be––a guide for creating organizations with internal dynamics that radically diverge from prevailing models. But it’s also a highly repetitive text with a lot of fuzzy language. It was truly perplexing to read a book that exhibited a firm, clear vision in some sections, and that merely oozed schmaltz in others. But we have to mine value
...more
Very thought provoking.
Let me highlight few ideas from the book:
If we start treating people as adults and allow them to express their whole selves, they will be able to realise much more of their potential. Their contribution to the company through their work will be far bigger than it would be otherwise. Also, maybe we should stop looking at companies as machines that we can build part by part and tweak to every smallest detail. Maybe we should look at companies as living beings and let them gr ...more
Let me highlight few ideas from the book:
If we start treating people as adults and allow them to express their whole selves, they will be able to realise much more of their potential. Their contribution to the company through their work will be far bigger than it would be otherwise. Also, maybe we should stop looking at companies as machines that we can build part by part and tweak to every smallest detail. Maybe we should look at companies as living beings and let them gr ...more
Sep 22, 2014
Jurgen Appelo
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
business-management,
managing-for-happiness
Wonderful book, full of inspirational stories. Pity it is full of "soulfull", "wholesome" and "spiritual" language.
...more
Informative, repetitive, thorough, overly long, and at times, weird.
FRederic Laloux's Reinventing Organizations is an in depth survey into the evolution of organisational theory. He describes how organisations have evolved,over time, from the street gang, mafia type, impulsive, organisations, which he refers to as Red organisations, through conformist organisations, with strong rules, structure and a rigid hierarchy, which he calls Amber; then on to Orange, green and finally teal. He describes O ...more
FRederic Laloux's Reinventing Organizations is an in depth survey into the evolution of organisational theory. He describes how organisations have evolved,over time, from the street gang, mafia type, impulsive, organisations, which he refers to as Red organisations, through conformist organisations, with strong rules, structure and a rigid hierarchy, which he calls Amber; then on to Orange, green and finally teal. He describes O ...more
This book is a brilliant collection of patterns and practices in self-managing organizations - both for-profit and non-profits.
I consider it a must-read for anyone interested in high performance, motivation based organizations.
Laloux ties his observations together with Ken Wilbers 'Integral Theory', and the idea that human consciousness evolves in stages. Self-managing organizations being a manifestation of a new level of consciousness just now emerging which the author labels 'Teal'
While this ...more
I consider it a must-read for anyone interested in high performance, motivation based organizations.
Laloux ties his observations together with Ken Wilbers 'Integral Theory', and the idea that human consciousness evolves in stages. Self-managing organizations being a manifestation of a new level of consciousness just now emerging which the author labels 'Teal'
While this ...more
IN SHORT: This is an amazing book for anyone interested in newer styles of organizations. Be warned that the author makes you work harder than necessary because of his heavy bent toward mysticism. But the great parts are TOTALLY worth the effort.
MORE DETAIL: This is an amazing book, and has many aspects based on research. Yet there is clearly a huge amount of subjectivity. For those who want to learn, have provoking ideas and solid concepts to customize and apply to an organization, the drawback ...more
MORE DETAIL: This is an amazing book, and has many aspects based on research. Yet there is clearly a huge amount of subjectivity. For those who want to learn, have provoking ideas and solid concepts to customize and apply to an organization, the drawback ...more
Brilliant!!
Such an amazing source of inspiration for every leader seeking a different, more conscious way to lead businesses and, ultimately, for every person who wants to live a full and wholesome life. This is a book that will literally shift your mind!
Such an amazing source of inspiration for every leader seeking a different, more conscious way to lead businesses and, ultimately, for every person who wants to live a full and wholesome life. This is a book that will literally shift your mind!
TL;DR: Interesting framework, crappy ideas.
This is the most intellectually lazy book I've ever read.
It starts with a metaphor, tying historical changes in human society with organizational structures. Laloux argues that organizational history recapitulates human history. While obviously simplistics and invalid it does provide a useful framework for sorting and classifying different organizational operating models.
Parts of this book does resonate. Sure, who want to work in an organisation wher ...more
This is the most intellectually lazy book I've ever read.
It starts with a metaphor, tying historical changes in human society with organizational structures. Laloux argues that organizational history recapitulates human history. While obviously simplistics and invalid it does provide a useful framework for sorting and classifying different organizational operating models.
Parts of this book does resonate. Sure, who want to work in an organisation wher ...more
Reinventing Organizations could have been a great book if it was not full of spirituality and and if the author would have been less superficial.
When I read this book, I went through a whole bunch of different feelings. First excitement because I like the idea of self-managed teams. Then disappointment when I realized, that it is sometimes a bit flat and superficial. Then interested again when I read about all the companies having employed self-management, from most of which I have not heard be ...more
When I read this book, I went through a whole bunch of different feelings. First excitement because I like the idea of self-managed teams. Then disappointment when I realized, that it is sometimes a bit flat and superficial. Then interested again when I read about all the companies having employed self-management, from most of which I have not heard be ...more
This book is a gift for anyone who can attest to how self-management can enable businesses to serve from the inside out.
When I first became a manager, I started to introduce styles of self-management into my work. First, out of respect for the team of engineers with whom I used to work alongside. Then, out of practicality. Given the number of projects I oversaw, the amount of stakeholders I needed to keep updated, I knew that I could no longer go deep into a problem to make informed decisions o ...more
When I first became a manager, I started to introduce styles of self-management into my work. First, out of respect for the team of engineers with whom I used to work alongside. Then, out of practicality. Given the number of projects I oversaw, the amount of stakeholders I needed to keep updated, I knew that I could no longer go deep into a problem to make informed decisions o ...more
Amazing. Really bad title though, makes it sound like a really dry, organizational development book. This is the latest book that I read that was a complete paradigm shifter. Absolutely recommend. Great, great book.
Wonderful content with unfortunate packaging.
5 stars for the content. 2,5 stars for the writing style and choice of terms. Workplace happiness would have clicked more with me than wholeness, soulfulness, et all.
Couldn't help to think sometimes "That sounds exactly like Star Trek utopia" or "wow that sounds pretty hippie". Might be because of my more achievement oriented up-bringing and the work environments I've witnessed in the last 15 years, though.
That being said, having worked the last 10 ...more
5 stars for the content. 2,5 stars for the writing style and choice of terms. Workplace happiness would have clicked more with me than wholeness, soulfulness, et all.
Couldn't help to think sometimes "That sounds exactly like Star Trek utopia" or "wow that sounds pretty hippie". Might be because of my more achievement oriented up-bringing and the work environments I've witnessed in the last 15 years, though.
That being said, having worked the last 10 ...more
Everything in this book just makes so much sense to me and yet most of the evolutionary teal practices described in this book are so uncommon in the workplace today. It's shocking what cruelty can a human being do to another human being in a modern workplace. Command and control management, performance reviews, bureaucratic processes, hierarchies – all look barbarian from the evolutionary teal perspective.
This book was very hard for me to read. Every page contrasting teal ways of work with those ...more
This book was very hard for me to read. Every page contrasting teal ways of work with those ...more
Widely discussed, frequently recommended, said to be thought-provoking & new standard-setting.
But is it for real?
I liked a lot of things about this book:
* its "color" classification is much deeper than some trivial black-or-white splits. I've especially appreciated clear borderline between green and teal kinds of organizations
* examples (real-life cases) are very interesting & truly inspiring; personally, I'd like to see more from tech or strictly commercial organizations
* references to holacrac ...more
But is it for real?
I liked a lot of things about this book:
* its "color" classification is much deeper than some trivial black-or-white splits. I've especially appreciated clear borderline between green and teal kinds of organizations
* examples (real-life cases) are very interesting & truly inspiring; personally, I'd like to see more from tech or strictly commercial organizations
* references to holacrac ...more
This book should be five stars. But it has problems. If you run an organization today, you should definitely read it... you are no doubt reading much worse business literature with much less insightful content. The research is great. The examples are clear and practical. It's just a slog.
Here are my caveats:
Caveat One: Sounds True Publishing
The author has inexplicably included Sounds True Publishing (https://soundstrue.com), a company which bears nothing in common with any of the other organizat ...more
Here are my caveats:
Caveat One: Sounds True Publishing
The author has inexplicably included Sounds True Publishing (https://soundstrue.com), a company which bears nothing in common with any of the other organizat ...more
A brilliant book. Insightful and inspired. Full of excellent examples from a variety of organizations and yet it is a fundamentally human, almost spiritual book.
The book has inspired me to think more broadly and deeply about my work, about how it might be applied, about the difference it can make, and about doing and being more.
One of the best, most inspiring management books I've ever read. ...more
The book has inspired me to think more broadly and deeply about my work, about how it might be applied, about the difference it can make, and about doing and being more.
One of the best, most inspiring management books I've ever read. ...more
This book will help to foster evolution and transformation in my organization and many others. It validates changes already made and points to very clear changes yet to make. Go to the website http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/ and get the e-book and then gift back to Laloux what you want to pay for it.
...more
I wish I could rate this higher. There are some good ideas here, but the book could be edited down significantly and be stronger as a result. Further, the author's appeal to things like evolution and "consciousness" as well as various mystical ideas related to consciousness is frustrating since the pseudoscientific justifications were offputting and had no basis in fact or reality.
...more
Skip the forward! I nearly put the book aside because the writing style of the forward is exceedingly dry and academic. I know several other people who bought the book but didn't make it past the forward. Take my advice: skip over the forward and go straight to the main text, which is far more engaging, and well worth reading.
...more
...more
Took me about a month with rigorous reading to finish this book.
It proposes a totally different perspective of organization that we are used to.
That's also the reason it might take us a long time to read/reflect/contemplate the book. ...more
It proposes a totally different perspective of organization that we are used to.
That's also the reason it might take us a long time to read/reflect/contemplate the book. ...more
A defining experience.
Wow, the best book on organizations I've read...ever, I think!
...more
Idea of the book is good. But it could be written in 150 pages, not 400
This is a largely very practical work marred here and there by the introduction of pseudoscience, what might be construed as spiritual waffle, and the standard liberal rhetoric that only the free market works. I find it interesting that so many of the French hold this idea of centrism in which centrism isn't about finding a middle ground between the right and left but rather picking and choosing ideas from each (e.g., look at Macron). Mostly, however, this isn't terribly influential on the book ...more
This is an incredible book that has had a deep impact on my thinking… It gives a great historical view of the different organizational model used by the humans and the correspondence of each model with each new stage of human consciousness.
It also explains how we are changing to a new stage and that a new kind of organizational model is appearing.
After giving this context and the explanation for each model, the book describes, this new "Teal" organizational model. The examples are very well doc ...more
It also explains how we are changing to a new stage and that a new kind of organizational model is appearing.
After giving this context and the explanation for each model, the book describes, this new "Teal" organizational model. The examples are very well doc ...more
I have seldom had a harder time reading a book. Progress in this book was excruciatingly slow, hard fought and often not very rewarding.
It doesn't help that I know a lot of what Laloux is writing about up to even the examples. One of the issues is that this method is not that popular so everybody has to fall back to use the same companies as examples.
It also doesn't help that the book starts off with integral theory, something that can only be described as a load of mumbo jumbo. This stuff comes ...more
It doesn't help that I know a lot of what Laloux is writing about up to even the examples. One of the issues is that this method is not that popular so everybody has to fall back to use the same companies as examples.
It also doesn't help that the book starts off with integral theory, something that can only be described as a load of mumbo jumbo. This stuff comes ...more
Inspiring book with great insights into several companies Laloux describes as "teal" - organizations that focus on self management, wholeness at work and evolutionary purpose.
Self-righteous and unfair in judging the other "more normal" organisation types and practices at times.
A good bunch of practical ideas and processes and success factors when operating in the teal area, or moving there.
I missed a critical discussion of the pitfalls, low-lights or challenges posed by transforming to teal. Al ...more
Self-righteous and unfair in judging the other "more normal" organisation types and practices at times.
A good bunch of practical ideas and processes and success factors when operating in the teal area, or moving there.
I missed a critical discussion of the pitfalls, low-lights or challenges posed by transforming to teal. Al ...more
I found this book incredibly inspiring. I am certain this was one of the author's aims in writing it: to help inspire people create, lead and take part in human institutions driven by a purpose to do good; to help inspire people realise that we can only be truly happy and fulfilled if everyone with whom we interact also feel happy and fulfilled; to help inspire people view the world through the understanding that all of the resources of the world belong to no one nor even everyone, and that we a
...more
I really, really, really enjoyed reading this book. I didn't know there were actually companies running by these principles, which I thought were just ideals and not even practical. It resonated a lot with me, since I'm just leaving a company that, from its wrapper, was showcased as a Teal Organization, but unfortunately, was not true to its values inside. Understanding the principles and actual practical methodologies to implement a Teal Organization, opened my mind to think and see that self-m
...more
This is an incredibly insightful, lucid, clearly articulated and well-written book. I found the description of the different stages eye-opening, as you can relate it to many organisations that you come across. The limitations of Achievement-Orange organisations are all too familiar, as is the clash of beliefs that people are fundamentally trustworthy versus not. This book has opened my eyes to another way of organising, that I hope to be able to put into practice. I am recommending this book to
...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST6 Book Club: Reinventing Organizations: Interesting Related Content | 1 | 8 | Mar 27, 2018 02:12AM | |
| Goodreads Librari...: Book cover needed for new edition | 3 | 8 | Apr 01, 2017 10:50AM | |
| Goodreads Librari...: Correction requested | 2 | 8 | Apr 01, 2017 10:38AM |
Readers also enjoyed
Goodreads is hiring!
News & Interviews
Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day.
To create our...
27 likes · 16 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“We have reached a stage where we often pursue growth for growth’s sake, a condition that in medical terminology would simply be called cancer.”
—
9 likes
“In a forest, there is no master tree that plans and dictates change when rain fails to fall or when the spring comes early. The whole ecosystem reacts creatively, in the moment.”
—
7 likes
More quotes…
