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we can only marvel at the efficiency of leadership by blog post.129
There are two organizations researched for this book that pioneered new ways of operating, but then reverted to traditional management practices. In both cases, this happened because the board didn’t see the world in the same way as the founder and pulled the plug.
I [became] a board member and gave powerful speeches to leave the system in place. But unfortunately—but not surprisingly given the perspective they came from—my colleagues from Philips on the board pronounced the word “unacceptable” regularly and forcefully. In the eyes of Philips it was a “deadly sin” to give people the authority to hire personnel or even just give away tickets for a musical. I believe that once we literally shouted over the issue until our faces turned red. Two worlds collided, one of strict financial procedures combined with “check, check, double check” with one of “have
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“Most board members loved the AES approach primarily because they believed it pushed the stock price up, not because it was the ‘right’ way to operate an organization.”
After the stock price dropped, the nature of our response changed dramatically. We became panicky, and our emphasis shifted from disclosure to damage control.
They jumped to the conclusions that our radical decentralizations, lack of organizational layers, and unorthodox operating style had caused “economic” collapse.
By his own account, he succeeded at one level but failed at another: employees became champions of “Joy at Work,” as Bakke called AES’s management practices. But at the board level, Bakke was less successful: I had several clues that my campaign to win over my board colleagues had been ineffective. … Even while some board members were telling shareholders that they loved “giving up power,” I could see that they found it difficult to give advice rather than make decisions. In addition, board members often suggested I tone down the “rhetoric” concerning our shared values and purpose, especially
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Viewed through Conformist-Amber or Orange lenses, the Teal structures and practices stand out as foolish or even dangerous. In
B-Corporations are for-profit companies that explicitly include a social or environmental purpose. Patagonia, the outdoor apparel maker, was the first Californian company to adopt the B-Corporation status at the beginning of 2012.
In for-profit companies as we know them (the so-called C-Corporations), the organizations’ directors have a fiduciary duty to the shareholders, and to the shareholders only. They face the prospect of civil claims if they stray from their fiduciary duties by taking environmental or social concerns into account at the expense of shareholders.
In B-Corporations, a special provision requires at least two-thirds or more of the votes on the board for changes of control, structure, or purpose. These provisions offer some protection to entrepreneurs who wish to raise capital but fear losing control of their business’s social or environmental mission.
Could it be that in a Teal society, we would no longer think in terms of ownership, but in terms of stewardship?
Experience also shows that it is easier to start out from Teal, rather than transforming an existing structure with its history and baggage from previous paradigms.
as a first step, start by uncovering the unspoken assumptions behind the traditional hierarchical organizational (Amber/Orange) model: workers are lazy and untrustworthy; senior people have all the answers; employees can’t handle difficult news; and so forth. Many people find this exercise eye-opening. When they realize what a sad set of assumptions underlies traditional management models, they are eager and energized to define a more positive set of assumptions.
there are three practices you should consider from day one:
Four particular practices lend themselves to being introduced very early on:
the purpose seems so self-evident that they focus all their energy on getting stuff done; they forget to talk about the why, the deeper purpose behind everyone’s efforts.
some founders evangelize about the purpose in a way that gives the impression that they are the only ones who can legitimately define it and talk about it.
The healthy relationship is one where as a founder you see, from the start, the organization as having a life and purpose of its own, dis...
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it can make sense to start with only one of the three breakthroughs of Teal Organizations (self-management, wholeness, or evolutionary purpose) and to introduce the others over time.
Everybody, not just a few at the top, is vested in his or her work, the organization’s purpose, its culture,
If people worked for years in a system that essentially relied on targets and pressure from above to prevent them from slacking off, then slacking off is exactly what might happen when bosses and targets are removed all of a sudden.
If you sense that there is little psychological ownership, then you need to think carefully and creatively about the journey that could help your colleagues develop an emotional investment in their work, the organization, and its purpose and achievements.
It’s in the team room that people’s emotional investment grows, as they debate their plans and targets and start dreaming about what is possible and what is realistic. In the course of several meetings, in all likelihood, the early enthusiasts win over those who are warier.
Another way to create emulation comes with information transparency. If there is a common metric across teams, such as productivity at Buurtzorg, then simply publishing teams’ results on a monthly basis can do the trick.
One condition needs to be in place before starting out on a journey to foster people’s emotional investment in their work and the organization: they have to trust the leader that wants to introduce self-management.
More likely, they will have to find themselves a new job within the organization or outside it, because their function will disappear altogether.
How will we operate in the future? In all honesty, I don’t know. I’m convinced that you deserve for us to work together differently, but I don’t have an alternative model. I suggest that, together, we learn by doing, with good intentions, common sense, and in good faith.136
There is, of course, an irony in the CEO imposing self-management in a last act of top-down decision-making.
it would offer a generous severance package to invite middle managers to seek a job elsewhere;
hierarchical relationships became a thing of the past. How to deal with middle/senior managers and colleagues in staff functions is in all likelihood the most challenging issue you will face in a transformation to Teal.
the CEO decides in top-down fashion, with the old powers vested in their role of CEO, to take out an essential lever of power.
Chaos will ensue, which is what you hope for.
Another, less drastic, avenue is to invite everyone in the organization to design the future of the organization together.
Large-group techniques like Appreciative Inquiry, Future Search, or Process Design make it possible to harness the wisdom of everyone in the organization, even when there are hundreds or thousands of employees.
A third approach consists of implementing an existing and proven set of self-managing practices. Holacracy is a natural candidate in this case.
With the switch to self-management, you can expect resistance from people who will lose their power or even their current job functions. When it comes to practices related to wholeness, some people might be uncomfortable at first, but if you invite people gently into these practices and don’t force them, you are unlikely to face real opposition.
You can start, for example, by suggesting a certain meeting practice in the meetings you attend (a round of check-in, a round of thanking, a minute of silence …),
Stories are always more powerful than arguments,
Why are you passionate about creating an organization where people relate more wholly with each other? Why is it important in your own life?
Think about the purpose of your organization, and you are likely to find a clear and compelling connection between more wholeness and more purpose.
Comprehensive introduction of wholeness practices
You sense that inviting people to be more fully themselves could help them step more confidently into their freedom and responsibilities.
This is not about crafting a probably soon-forgotten mission statement. (“We strive to be the premier producer of widgets in the country, exceeding our customers’ expectations, providing exciting opportunities to employees, and delivering superior returns to shareholders.”)
you could use specific methodologies—Theory U or Appreciative Inquiry, for example—to lead you step by step toward uncovering the creative impulse of the organization.
Most business books today promise they will help their readers achieve better outcomes (“the secret recipes to boost your revenue, profit, and market share!”).
Einstein famously said that we cannot solve a problem using the same consciousness that created it.
To what extent do the organization’s accomplishments manifest its purpose?
1) Power is multiplied when everybody gets to be powerful, rather than just a few at the top (self-management); 2) Power is used with more wisdom, as people bring in more of themselves to work (wholeness); and 3) Somehow things just fall into place when people align their power and wisdom with the life force of the organization (evolutionary purpose).
Through purpose: Individual energies are boosted when people identify with a purpose greater than themselves.
