Reinventing Organizations

I never took much time to think through the soul of an organization. While reading “Reinventing Organizations” I had to open my eyes to the life of a group and how it mirrored the society in which the organization may “live” .

Since the start of time we’ve seen a shift through different paradigms of organizations. These organizations can be grouped into bands of colors based on similar traits:

• Infrared — Reactive : small bands of kinship, no distinction from the pack/herd.
• Magenta — Magic : some consciousness of ego, cause and effect not entirely developed, similar to a newborn child to 24 months.
• Red — Impulsive : first true organization theory based on fear and violence as drivers, most seen in war, prisons and gangs. “I want it. I take it.”
• Amber — Conformist : cause and effect is understood, science helps to guide, farming and agriculture dominate. People strive for acceptance into approval of their social circle. Creation of processes for stability, planning and execution are separated, formal titles and hierarchies are created. Found in government agencies, traditional schools and the military. Lack of risk or innovation.
• Orange — Achievement — Realization of the complexities of the world, solidly materialistic, suspicious of any form of spirituality consumerism leads to happiness…more is more. Found in most modern larger “global” organizations. Brought forward achievements in innovation, accountability and meritocracy.
• Green — Pluralistic : There is more to life than success or failure. All perspectives deserve equal respect , relationships are valued above outcomes. Powerful paradigm for breaking down old structure but less effective at formulating practical alternatives. Structure still exists, but more decision making held by front line workers. Leadership starts to look like servant leadership model. Model is structured on family relationships.
• Teal — Evolutionary : this is the current stage to reach for. More to come on this….

First, we need to understand the conditions needed to evolve into the teal paradigm and the drivers of this change — the organization’s leaders. An organization cannot evolve beyond its leadership’s desires.

Besides the leaders’ desire for evolution, stakeholders all have to have a firm understanding of this change and have complete buy- in. Backtracking once there is a bump in the road is a dangerous problem to have.

Some notes and observations about the Teal world:

• A teal person has ambition but is not ambitious at any cost.
• Humans are not problems waiting to be solved, but potential waiting to unfold.
• There is a strong TRUST and self-monitoring in the membership of a teal organization.
• There are no mistakes, simply experiences that point us to a deeper truth about ourselves and the world.
• Intuition is a muscle that can be trained, just like logical thinking; when we learn to pay attention to our intuition, more solutions and answers will surface.
• When fear and ego are vanquished from an organization, running a company actually becomes easier for everyone.

I know these sound like a motivational poster, but sit and think on how these minor shifts in perception have a huge impact on an organization.

Teal organizations TEND to self-manage without the need of expensive, complex systems of hierarchy. These organizations also value the wholeness of the people working there. Instead of putting on masks and having a different work personality, Teal organizations strive to make the whole person matter.

Finally, instead of trying to predict the future, Teal organizations see where the world wants the organization to go. This removes the complexities of having huge forecasts and budgets, which as we all know are pretty much a joke.

This book not only gives a philosophical framework of how Teal organizations could act but gives in-depth examples of current Teal organizations. Many of these companies across different industries have been working in this paradigm for decades. Having that blueprint is helpful to see how these organizations work.

Looking more deeply into the areas that make Teal organizations unique, we start with management structures — or lack thereof. Surveys show that most people are actively unengaged in their current jobs. Teal organizations don’t have a set structure or organizational chart. Instead they rely on self-managing teams and a lack of formal hierarchical management.

Decisions lie in these teams- the key is that people have a voice on what they are working on. Innovation thrives and a lack of middle-management helps to maintain the sanctity of the process. This leads to incredible results — people can trusted to act “good” without the threat of a meddling boss. Those folks who aren’t, will self-slect to leave the organization.

In some organizations, there still exists the structures of a physical headquarters and C-level teams for some fuctionality, but on the whole they are servents to the teams- not the other way around.

It comes down to this — fear is a great inhibitor.

When organizations are built not on implicit mechanisms of fear, but instead on structures and practices that breed trust and responsibility, extraordinary and unexpected incredibleness starts to happen on a regular basis. Innovation, extreme fiscal and non-financial success, and a huge increase in human satisfaction are just a few areas that can be measured — and in Teal organizations outpace other organizational structures.

The idea of a self-managed, company that relies on the goodness and innate quality of the team is nothing short of revolutionary. The management of these teams is counter to a lot of classical management maxims, but they work…and there is hard proof.

Reading this book made me uncomfortable in a lot of ways, thinking about how to abandon the old ways of command and control management. At the same time, it gave me hope that there is a better way, and one that has been stress tested.

I ‘m looking forward to reading more about Teal organizations and taking these lessons to heart. It’s a new day for organizations and it’s time to reinvent the workplace not only for team satisfaction but to meet the critical and fast moving pace of the new challenges and opportunities in the ever evolving world economy.

Originally published at tomvranas.com.