Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness

by Frederic Laloux

complex clockwork, whose inner workings and natural laws can be investigated and understood.

Effectiveness replaces morals as a yardstick for decision-making:

can begin to imagine different possible worlds.

scientific investigation, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

unprecedented levels of prosperity.

life expectancy, doing away with famine and plague in the industrialized world, and is now repeating the magic at a rapid pace in the developing world as well. Every

corporate greed, political short-termism, overleverage, overconsumption, and the reckless exploitation of the planet’s resources and ecosystems.

It has moved us away from the idea that authority has the right answer (instead, it relies on expert advice to give

healthy dose of skepticism regarding r...

capable of questioning and stepping out of the condition we were born

breaking free from the thoughts and behaviors that our gender and our social class

individuals should be free to pursue their goals in life, and the best in their field should be able to make it to the

does not deconstruct the traditional Conformist-Amber

Those who have achieved success are generally happy to recreate forms of social stratification—they

solidly materialistic—only what can be seen and touched is real.

suspicious of any form of spirituality and transcendence because of a difficulty in believing something that cannot empirically be proven or observed. Unencumbered by deep soulful questions, our ego reaches the peak of its dominance at this stage as we

more is generally conside...

assumption that achieving the next goal (getting the next promotion, finding a life partner, moving to a new house, or buying a new car) will make us happy. In Orange, we effectively live in the future, cons...

three additional breakthroughs: innovation, accountability, and

meritocracy.

live in the world of possibilities, of what is not yet but could one day be. They can question the status quo and formulate ways to improve upon it. Unsurprisingly, leaders of Orange

innovation that has fueled the massive wealth creation of the last two centuries. They invented departments that didn’t exist (and largely still don’t exist) in Amber Organizations: research and development, marketing, and product management.

Orange Organizations are process andproject driven.

pyramid as their basic structure, but they drill holes into rigid functional and hierarchical boundaries

to speed up communication and foster innovation.

Amber command and control becomes Orange predict and control.

becomes a competitive advantage to tap into the intelligence of many brains in the organization.

Larger parts of the organization must be given room to maneuver and must be empowered and trusted to think and execute. The answer comes i...

To a certain degree, the leadership doesn’t care how the objectives will be met, as long as they are met.

This attitude has prompted the birth of a host of now familiar management processes to define objectives (predict) and follow up (control): strategic planning, mid-term planning, yearly budgeting cycles, key performance indicators, and balanced scorecards,

incentive processes

Amber relied only on sticks, Orange came up with carrots.

leaders’ fear to give up control trumps their ability to trust, and they keep making decisions high up that would be better left in the hands of people lower in the hierarchy.

In principle, anybody can move up the ladder, and nobody is predestined to stay in his position.

The pervasive thinking is that each person’s talent should be developed and that everybody should be put in the box of the organization chart where they can best contribute to the whole.

modern human resources and its arsenal of processes and practices, which include performance appraisals, incentive systems, resource planning, talent management, leadership training, and succession planning.

It is a breakthrough in social fairness.

take the responsibility of managing their careers and expect to change positions every few years, either inside the organization, or outside if needed.

As people change position often during a career, the Conformist-Amber fusion of identity with one’s rank and position in the pyramid is weakened.

One must always look the part: be busy but composed, competent, and in control of the situation.

Rationality is valued above all else; emotions, doubts, and dreams are best kept behind a mask, so that we do...

Our identity is no longer fused with our rank and title; instead it is fused with our need to be seen as competent and succes...

signs of status are not. Senior managers have spacious corner offices, enjoy reserved parking spaces, fly first class, and receive generous stock options—while their subordinates fly coach and toil away in cubicles. Perks are not incompatible with meritocracy: leaders

you are smart and work hard enough, these benefits could be yours too.

Achievement-Orange thinks of organizations as machines,

There is room for energy, creativity, and innovation. At the same time, the metaphor of the machine indicates that these organizations, however much they brim with activity, can still feel lifeless and soulless.

Impulsive-Red calls for predatory leaders; Conformist-Amber for paternalistic authoritarianism. In keeping with the machine metaphor, Achievement-Orange leadership tends to look at management through an engineering perspective. Leadership at this stage is typically goal-oriented, focused on solving tangible problems, putting tasks over relationships. It values dispassionate rationality and is wary of emotions; questions of meaning and purpose feel out of place.

businesses increasingly try to create needs, feeding the illusion that more stuff we don’t really need—more possessions, the latest fashion, a more youthful body—will make us happy and whole.

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.

we are bound to experience a sense of emptiness in our lives.