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Reinventing Organizations: An Illustrated Invitation to Join the Conversation on Next-Stage Organizations

Frederic Laloux,

Étienne Appert (Illustrations)

4.45 · Rating details · 567 ratings · 57 reviews

The uplifting message of Reinventing Organizations has resonated with readers all over the world, and they have turned it, one conversation at a time, into a word-of-mouth phenomenon. The book has helped shift the conversation from what's broken with management today to what's possible. It is inspiring thousands of organizations--corporations and nonprofits, schools and ho ...more

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Paperback, 172 pages

Published June 30th 2016 by Nelson Parker

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Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux

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Aug 11, 2020 Jim Puskas rated it it was ok

Shelves: social-commentary, human-relations

This book reminds me so much of some of the studies, initiatives, “breakthrough exercises” and so on that I suffered through during my 45 years of working for a number of different organizations (all but one of them in the private sector). I say “suffered through” because in every case, it became a frustrating experience because none of those exercises really succeeded in changing much of anything. There were various reasons why that was the case but I think the top reason was a lack of true com This book reminds me so much of some of the studies, initiatives, “breakthrough exercises” and so on that I suffered through during my 45 years of working for a number of different organizations (all but one of them in the private sector). I say “suffered through” because in every case, it became a frustrating experience because none of those exercises really succeeded in changing much of anything. There were various reasons why that was the case but I think the top reason was a lack of true commitment on the part of those involved, a shortage of courage to “let go”, a lack of patience and the impact of disruptive outside forces. Those are not excuses, just facts.
To begin with, let us admit to ourselves that this is an extremely optimistic and idealistic document. In common with any of the other thousands of books on reinventing (or transforming or getting rid of, or “flattening”) management, it speaks to the great benefits of its prescribed solution but carefully glosses over the many obstacles that have to be overcome; and the fact that the transformative process cannot simply implement the new structure and then leave it alone, to continue enjoying the benefits indefinitely; organizational change by its nature has to be an ongoing process, continually adapting to new challenges. There is no “magic bullet”.
All that said, there is no question in my mind that almost everything advocated in the book is workable — under the right circumstances and engaging the right people. Regrettably those conditions are rarely met and are usually difficult to sustain. It may be worthwhile to list a few of the obstacles that must be overcome:
1. Topping the list is human nature. We are genetically programmed to be competitive; the desire for upward mobility and a bigger slice of the pie (money, prestige, power) gets in the way of implementing a non-hierarchical organization. Overcoming that obstacle requires replacing an entire set of people, replacing “middle managers” and various functional silos with dedicated, self-managed teams. But it doesn’t stop there: some of those in the organization will not function well in that setting, which doesn’t appear to satisfy their desire for personal success and there will always have to be a “weeding out” process (which can become messy and contentious).
2. Lack of unlimited freedom to act: It’s rare that a top executive has the power to implement such sweeping changes. Publicly traded companies are virtual slaves to investment dealers and banks who interface with shareholders, all of them focused on short term financial results; and rating agencies who are believers in traditional hierarchies. To overcome that obstacle, the person in charge must have the extraordinary authority and courage to implement a wholesale removal of all existing layers of management and have a free hand to stay the course, even if the change takes many months or even years to roll out. Only a person who owns the business (or at least has a total controlling interest in it) can sometimes do it.
I had occasion to visit Milliken & Co. in South Carolina some years ago; Roger Milliken’s family owned the business, which enabled him to implement a wholesale re-org, including several self-managed plants, operated by self-acting teams with no manager; I very much doubt that he would have been allowed such leeway in a public corporation.
3. Difficulty of team dynamics: Let’s face it, in any group of a dozen workers there is bound to be at least one person who take every opportunity to sacrifice the team interest in favor of their own personal interests (checks out early, seeks the easiest or most pleasant work, never volunteers for anything extra, etc.) This causes internal tension and destroys team morale. To overcome this, the team members must have the authority to impose team discipline and cooperation, including the authority to hire and dismiss members. Doing so is certain to trigger legal problems, claims of favoritism, wrongful dismissal. And if there’s a union, the team structure will never get off the ground because unions are by their nature hierarchical and usually combative.
4. Politics: Need I say more? The political animal cannot resist any opportunity for personal aggrandisement, which precludes team dynamics. Public pressures, avoidance of controversy, gerrymandering, backbiting and the urge to exert authority all conspire against any move toward a self-governing structure.
So: is this book well written? Yes. Are the concepts valid? Of course; and the principles presented can be very useful in getting organizations to re-think their approaches. The examples given prove their own worth. But they are all “special cases” where the owners were in a position to address most of the obstacles. The stories may be inspiring and are to be celebrated. But any suggestion that this is easy stuff to do is misleading.
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Jul 08, 2018 Quinton rated it really liked it

The point of this book is to help fix what's broken in today's organizational structures and management.
This is a light read, full of illustrations, but apparently gets to the point of the fuller text (which I haven't read).

The idea behind this book, is that there are different management paradigms that have been used over the years, and are still being used.

There's Red - the power structure. The most powerful is the leader, and he is boss. (Think organized crime). People serve out of loyalty a The point of this book is to help fix what's broken in today's organizational structures and management.
This is a light read, full of illustrations, but apparently gets to the point of the fuller text (which I haven't read).

The idea behind this book, is that there are different management paradigms that have been used over the years, and are still being used.

There's Red - the power structure. The most powerful is the leader, and he is boss. (Think organized crime). People serve out of loyalty and fear. These can be very entrepreneurial and react quickly, since the power is concentrated in one person at the top.

Amber - Conformists - everyone knows what's expected of them, and they serve a common belief. THey follow because of guilt and shame. The decisions happen at the top, execution at the bottom. There is a right way of doing things, it's black and white. They have trouble with change. (Think school systems, or organized religion).

Orange - achievement focused - The organization is a machine, and efficiency is key. Continous improvement and innovation are constantly aimed for. Whatever we can do to make a buck. (Think any public company). The CEO and board have a lot of power here, but not all the information, since they're so busy and hard to get a hold of.

Green - pluralistic - the organization is a family. This is all about empowerment, and values-driven culture, and considering stakeholder value instead of just shareholder value. (Think most non-profits). Emphasis is on consensus, so it's really hard to make any decisions or change.

And then we have the next generation of management practices - Teal. This is the evolutionary worldview, where an organization is a complex organism (if you make a change, you really don't know what will happen, because it's full of people who aren't 100% predictable). This is about listening to who we are meant to be and striving for wholeness. It means getting rid of the hierarchy and building self-managed teams (the goal is not to make everyone equal, but to make everyone fully powerful). Decisions are made by the people who are impacted to them. Targets are eliminated.

It's a great read, full of examples of companies that are actually doing this.
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Feb 14, 2019 Kim Wollesen rated it it was amazing

An inspiring book about next-stage organisations. It's not all that makes sense to me straight away since it is far from what we are used to in the modern business world.
However, the gut feeling about this shift in management practice is just unbelievably good, and I have a feeling that this is what the world needs in terms of leadership to save the planet!
Big words, but this is what we need in politics and modern society if we want to live a healthier more sustainable life. ...more

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Mar 05, 2018 Jordan Munn rated it it was ok

The ideas presented are interesting ones, but compressing the original book into this illustrated version is a move in the wrong direction and blunt the message into a more condescending tone. This is not helped by the illustrations, which evolve into caricatures resembling chick tracts.

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Apr 02, 2019 Zahin rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What is the one thing I most value about working with you? and What is one area where I sense you
could change and grow?

Beyond Strategy - execution. They tend to see the organization not as a machine, but as a living organism that has its own energy, its own sense of direction, its own purpose to manifest in the world. The role of leaders—of everyone really— becomes much simpler. Rather than trying to predict and force a future into existence, they simply can listen to where the organization natu ...more

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Apr 13, 2020 Bogdan Florin rated it really liked it

A new paradigm of organizational development. Laroux put together a framework to detach from hierarchies and approach cutting-edge collaborative styles.

Laroux describes what companies like Buurtzorg, ESBZ, FAVI, Morning Star or Patagonia have in common, and why they are different than the rest. The differences are explained from an evolutionary point of view and are colored-coded. It's super simple to understand the concepts due to the beautifully designed colored illustrations.

The new model c ...more

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Oct 24, 2020 Marcelo Bahia rated it it was ok

Shelves: why-did-i-fall-to-this, business

Thank God I chose the illustrated shorter version of this. Another one of those “you should try this unusual approach and radically improve how your firm works” type of books who just overlooks the practical limits that specific circumstances and environments bring.

The book starts diagnosing everything that could be possibly wrong in modern companies, and of course your firm will have some of those too. Nothing out of the obvious, though. Yes, employee engagement is difficult. Yes, hierarchy and Thank God I chose the illustrated shorter version of this. Another one of those “you should try this unusual approach and radically improve how your firm works” type of books who just overlooks the practical limits that specific circumstances and environments bring.

The book starts diagnosing everything that could be possibly wrong in modern companies, and of course your firm will have some of those too. Nothing out of the obvious, though. Yes, employee engagement is difficult. Yes, hierarchy and the command-and-control way of doing business are not flexible and don’t work as well anymore as in the past given the higher complexity of today’s business environments. Yes, performance reviews suck. Yes, we all hate the excess of meetings. Yes, we all find the budgeting exercise frustrating and sometimes futile. Can I stop here or you are not tired yet of reading about issues you’re already familiar with? If this paragraph made you tired, imagine expanding it into dozens and dozens of pages, accompanied by silly childish illustrations that don’t bring additional value to the message in the text.

“How harsh from your part, Marcelo. Of course the book needs to repeat all these problems! It must do so to show you the corporate Holy Grail of where your company needs to be and how it’s different from where you are right now. And then showing how to make the bridge from where you are to where you need to be.”

Indeed, fine point. I should strive to be less grumpy about books like these even though the abundance and frequency of useless management writing make it hard to do so. And the book indeed talks about the corporate Holy Grail, this beautiful and perfect state where people are perfectly trusted, given full autonomy, keep their ego out of the door, can work in teams perfectly well without free-riding problems and don’t need formal targets in order to keep delivering good results. What a sweet and wonderful world.

As I contemplated all of this, my irritation with the obvious diagnosis featured in the first few sections of the book was only kept in check because I was eager to learn how to actually put at least some of this good stuff in practice. I might not be able to reach the Holy Grail, but I could at least try to be somewhere closer to it. And this was the “screw it all, this thing is really crap” moment of the book. How to implement all of these wonderful practices? Ladies and gentlemen, let the correspondent section of the book speak for itself:

“The question I get asked most often these days is: “How can I transform my existing organization?” Jean-François Zobrist (the CEO who helped the brass foundry and automotive supplier FAVI adopt self- management) always replies to this question with the shortest of answers: “Démerdez-vous“.

I’m too polite to translate this literally, but it means something like, “You go figure it out!” What he wants to say, in his own provocative style, is: there is no recipe. If you are serious about this, you’ll find a way. You are smart and resourceful enough to figure it out. You won’t get everything right, but a way will open. I agree with him. There is no recipe. And I’ve come to believe that if the CEO really wants this (and if the board lets him— remember the second necessary condition), it will happen. We know it can be done. FAVI did it. AES acquired dozens of traditionally run power plants all over the world and managed, time and time again, to transform them. And since the book Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness came out, I have heard from many organizations that are making the leap to Teal. The simplest lesson I’ve learned from this is that every journey is truly unique. Which is, I guess, a fig leaf to say: these are early days. We don’t know much yet about how such journeys unfold, as most companies are still in the middle of it. We simply lack in-depth research about it. So I can’t offer any definitive answers when people ask me, “How can I transform my existing organization?”.”

Yes, what the f***. WHAT THE F***. Are you serious that I dragged myself for 2 days through some trashy business book so I can hear in the end that “I’m smart and I should be able to figure it out by myself because others have done it before and we don’t have in-depth research about it”. Vas te perdre, I’m taking my reading somewhere else and you should do it too. ...more

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Feb 18, 2020 Illya rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed reading this very accessible, illustrated summary of Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness. As someone who’s not ready yet to get into all the fine details of “how exactly does this work,” this shorter intro was perfect, and it was good to know there was much more detail available in the original book. I do think the illustrations are helpful in making this book entertaining and digestible. And I did find m ...more

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Jul 21, 2019 Emmawiz rated it it was amazing

5/5 - In a book selling frenzy, I intentionally planned to sell this book that I received as a gift from a previous company and never read. Thank god I decided to finally open and read it (and at the right moment, when I am quite confused with what to do with my professional life). It was enlightening and explained in a very simple and surprising manner of lot of things I was bothered with at work. It opens many doors for a new professional world. I do hope it will push many leaders to think dif ...more

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Jun 06, 2018 Fiikske rated it it was amazing

guerilla tactics to move your organization towards becoming teal: drop copies of this book at various desks in your organization, then watch and learn ;-)

the book is indeed a concise version of the more elaborate "reinventing organisations", but without losing any of its strength or power.

also good for those who need a refresher or inspiration for stories at your coffee breaks.

great book! thanks Frederic and all of your entourage that made this book happen as well! ...more

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Feb 25, 2020 Thomas Vanh rated it really liked it

It's an interesting book that makes you think about new business models. However this model is explained and presented in the best light.

I think that there are potential dangers that the author has not yet presented. So what I would recommend is, read this book learn about self-organizing companies and also read counter arguments. So that you see the whole picture and not just fairy dust and rainbows.

However I enjoyed reading this book and I loved the illustrations. ...more

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Jan 17, 2018 Carlos rated it it was amazing

A real hit this illustrated version. All the concepts, theoretical and practical, are very well resumed, and with an enjoyable use of art.

I love this version too because it's a wonderful way to give/lend/recommend to someone due to its "light weight"

A must (like the original book) in new management and organization ...more

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Feb 17, 2019 David Hutchens rated it it was amazing

This resonates with what I’m seeing every day in my work with senior leaders and complex systems. The breezy text and compelling visuals make this a brilliant way to invite people into a broader conversation around new mental models for organizations. Really kind of brilliant. If you want to go deeper (and you will!) the author’s original book is your next step.

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Nov 03, 2019 Igor Đukić rated it it was amazing

Shelves: accf-8-transform

Very engaging transformational book with a lot of illustrations for one afternoon. How to create simpler, more intuitive, more natural, way to do things in your team or organization - self-management, wholeness, evolutionary purpose. Great list of videos created by Frederic about HOW https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... ...more

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Jul 26, 2017 Lassi Autio rated it it was ok

Shelves: leadership

I think many would like this book a lot but for "engineers" like me it might not be that interesting. Illustrations in book are excellent and make the book quite easy to read and understand. I hope to see something like that in other books too. Especially coloring was nice. ...more

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Jan 21, 2019 Delcho rated it it was amazing

Shelves: emba

Very captivating read about alternatives to conventional organizational structures and dynamics. It will be interesting to explore further how this new Teal Organization can apply to a 150-year old insurance company.

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Jul 26, 2019 Toni Tassani rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned-physical

A great summary of the “Reinventing Organizations” book, where you get all the basic ideas and full of inspiring illustrations. You can read it in very few hours.
I read it after the long one, and it has added no value to me apart from a refresher, and the beautiful illustrations.

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Oct 22, 2019 Victoria Grape rated it it was amazing

Currently birthing a NGO and a small farm enterprise, this illustrated guide to reinventing the way we think about, manifest and thrive in collaborative work has been immensely inspirational. Time will tell which iteration, or perhaps novel form, these ventures will take.

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Mar 20, 2020 Karolina (plantreadrepeat) rated it it was amazing

This book explains something I have been sensing especially within myself, and also in some parts of the working world. I was just never able to properly describe it or put it into words. Recommending this to everyone still seeking for that job that makes them happy.

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Apr 20, 2020 Jonathan Roseland rated it liked it

Game-Changing, Paradigm-Shifting Growth Tool or Postmodern Nonsense...?
After reading this comic book and listening to Don Beck's Spiral Dynamics audiobook I'm really not sure.
4-stars for nice illustration and presentation of a complex topic. ...more

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Sep 27, 2018 John rated it it was amazing

Inspiring and assuring at the same time. A little pearl for sure.

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Oct 23, 2018 Lee rated it it was amazing

They should make illustrated summary versions of all business books like this!

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Nov 27, 2019 Richard Roodt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Great read

Interesting and fascinating read for those interested in Org transformation. An engaging and easy read, highly recommended. Times they are a changing, for sure.

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Dec 30, 2019 Marc rated it it was amazing

Hoping to bring about these kinds of changes at work!

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Jan 03, 2020 Florian Schöttle rated it it was amazing

A very refreshing and motivating view on a new type of organizations.

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Mar 03, 2020 Alessandra rated it really liked it

So much to contemplate in this book!

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May 03, 2020 Alberta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Study Circle (March 2020) and Teal Meetup. Great intro.

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Dec 08, 2020 Adam Waters rated it it was amazing

An incredibly thought provoking, well set out and engaging read.

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Jan 17, 2019 Lance Willett rated it really liked it

This is an illustrated edition that is much shorter than the full book. You can also find Laloux on TED-style videos on YouTube explaining the same topics.

In brief: the world of organizations evolved as our cultures did, from primitive to open: red, orange, green, and teal.

Red groups are impulsive and fear-based. Archetype is a mafia or street gang. An example that him home to me:

More ordinary examples are the many small enterprises where founder-bosses do whatever it takes to succeed and get in

...more

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Aug 23, 2020 Kate rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: business

The book addresses the idea of control in companies and equality in power. The challenge is the shift in thinking towards sense-respond and allowing those around us to be fully powerful.

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“This is how nature has worked for millions of years. Innovation doesn't happen centrally, according to plan, but at the edges, all the time, when some organism senses a change in the environment and experiments to find a response. Some attempts to fail catch on; others rapidly spread to all corners of the ecosystem. Reality is the ultimate reference.” — 0 likes

“At an individual level, when life calls for change, we always feel a tensions, sometimes pleasant, sometimes unsettling. There are habits we have grown fond of; our identity is invested in certain situations. But when change isn't imposed from the outside, from above; when we personally feel powerful and responsible; when there is a safe space where we can have meaningful conversations about all of this...chances are that embracing change is somewhat easier.” — 0 likes

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