BOOK SUMMARY 403
Reinventing
Organizations
·
Summary written by: Ronni Hendel-Giller
"…this book is...a book that helps shift
the conversation from what’s broken to what’s possible. A book that shares how
some companies have found ways to be truly powerful, soulful, and
purposeful…and that invites you to imagine a new future for your organization."
- Reinventing Organizations, page 10
The original and more conventional version of this book
was published in 2014. It’s a 378-page book that presents, through case studies
of twelve organizations, the possibility that organizations can operate from a
qualitatively different worldview than the one we operate from today.
The book got great press and, within my network at least,
came up in conversation quite a bit. The ideas are provocative. Laloux is both
realistic in describing where we are and optimistic in charting possibilities
for the future. I read part of the book and then got busy with something
else…planning to come back to it soon. And then, a few months ago, Laloux
published this book, which is a little over 150 pages and full of pictures! So,
I took the original off the top of the pile on my bedside table and started
this one.
While I’m sure I’ll make my way back to the full-length
version (there’s a lot more there,) I feel as if I got a good introduction and
an invitation to dig deeper. Laloux suggests that this version can be read in
not much more than a sitting. I don’t agree. There’s still a lot here—and it’s
worth taking the time to digest it.
With that as an introduction, let’s dive into what’s in
the book.
The Big Idea
The Essential Metaphor of Teal
"Imagine what organizations would be like if we
stopped designing them like soulless machines. What could organizations
achieve, and what would work feel like, if we treated them like living beings,
if we let them be fueled by the evolutionary power of life itself?"-
Reinventing Organizations, page 54
Drawing on a theory known as Spiral Dynamics, based in
the work of the psychologist Clare Graves, Laloux describes the historical
evolution of the world, people and organizations. Before you get to Teal, which
is where most of the book focuses, there are four stages: Red, Amber, Orange
and Green.
Red is premised on
impulsivity and brute force.
Amber is based on conformity
driven by guilt and shame and fitting in.
Orange is based on
achievement and reflected in the scientific and industrial revolutions. It’s
also where most corporations and governments are today—think Wall Street. The
dominant metaphor is the machine and the key breakthroughs are innovation,
accountability and meritocracy.
Green moves towards a
pluralistic worldview with empowerment, values-driven culture and stakeholder
value being the key breakthroughs.
Keep in mind, there’s nothing wrong with orange and
green—and even red and amber have their place. Each represents a critical
evolutionary stage (personal, organizational and societal.) However, evolution
continues. We have (and require, in our complex world) even greater potential.
And that’s where Teal comes in. Teal’s worldview is evolutionary.
Its metaphor is not a machine, it’s a living organism. Teal is about true
interconnectedness, a desire for wholeness, and allowing emergence. Teals’
breakthroughs are self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose.
This might sound a little, well, ungrounded. That’s why
the examples of organizations experimenting with and building organizations
based on Teal are so important. This book really is an invitation—to consider
the possibility of Teal and begin to think about how it might emerge—even in
small ways.
Insight #1
Self-management is Natural
"Not a single complex system works with a pyramidal
hierarchy, because such hierarchy breaks down in the face of complexity.
"- Reinventing Organizations, page 59
At the core of the Teal organization is the breakthrough
of self-management. To be honest, I still find it a bit daunting. So, I found
it really compelling to think about nature and realize that there are many
natural models of distributed authority. And when we think about the
organization as a living organism, we would do well to realize that it’s not
really so strange and therefore, not necessarily so difficult.
If you think about it, the entire global economy is run
without a boss. It’s too complex for that. The human brain is another example
of a complex system without a “CEO”—but rather a distributed network. The
examples abound.
With that frame of reference, the stories of Buurtzorg, a
home care non-profit in the Netherlands, and FAVI, a major automotive supplier
in Germany, start making sense. Both operate without traditional CEOs and
management teams, and both are achieving incredible results for their people,
their customers, and their bottom line.
In each of these organizations there are decision-making
processes that allow anyone to initiate a decision—and there are structures for
how they need to seek, gather, and use advice for making the decision. Reading
about that decision-making—or advice—process was when I started to see the
possibility that this wasn’t just idealism—that it could genuinely be
actionable. It made sense and felt practical. It’s also when I saw that it goes
far beyond empowerment—in which one person grants another power. That is part
of a hierarchy. This is not.
Insight #2
Bringing All of You to Work
"There is a sentence I heard over and over again
from people working in Teal organizations. “Here I can be myself.” "-
Reinventing Organizations, page 91
Laloux explores, in some detail, the masks we wear at
work. He demonstrates that we ultimately bring a small part of ourselves to the
workplace. If and when we can change this and bring our full selves to work, we
can set free enormous energy. Instead, most workplaces are afraid of the mess.
The Teal organizations that were studied put in a lot of
practices—deliberate ones—to support people’s ability to feel safe enough to be
themselves—and actually explore new facets of themselves. Some of these are
literal—at Patagonia there’s a Child Development Center and parents can pick up
their kids and bring them to lunch in the cafeteria and up to their offices.
“It is not uncommon to see a mother nursing her child during a meeting.”
These organizations also establish and live by clear
ground rules that support dealing with conflict gracefully and respectfully,
and creating a space where people can safely speak up. These ground rules and
other practices show up in meetings which are structured to ensure that
speaking up is safe and that people bring their whole selves. Several meeting
ideas in the book feel pretty practical to me and potentially could be first
steps at embracing these breakthroughs even in a more traditional organization.
I know, as does Laloux, that many organizations are not
yet ready for this kind of rethinking and reorganizing. And that’s it harder to
transform an existing organization than start from scratch. Nonetheless, I’m
excited by these ideas and challenged by them—and do believe that we can, in small
ways, start thinking and acting differently—and slowly shifting our traditional
organizations. If you see this book as what is billed to be—an invitation—then
accepting that invitation is as simple as beginning to contemplate the
possibilities described here.
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