Written by Fiona Savage and published at http://fionasavage.co.uk/
The legacy hierarchical approach to management is being replaced by self-organized, self-managed teams which are able to adapt flexibly to changing circumstances to achieve the organization’s purpose, congruent with its values.
Frederic Laloux’s book “Reinventing Organizations: The development of Teal organisations:” (sic) the Teal model stands for 3 major factors, “Self-management, Wholeness, and Purpose” and uses the phrase “living organism” as a metaphor for the organisational context.
Teal organisations include:-
- Buurtzorg: a Netherlands-based healthcare non-profit company that provides community nursing.
- ESBZ: a publicly financed school in Berlin, covering grades 7 to 12, which has attracted international attention for its innovative curriculum and organizational model.
- FAVI: a brass foundry in France which produces (amongst other things) gearbox forks for the automotive industry and has about 500 employees.
The above are a few of the newer self-managed organisation, however self-managed organisations have been around for decades and are highly successful.
- Semco in Brasil,
- W. L. Gore,
- Whole Foods,
- Patagonia.
This is not some newfangled idea about working; our plant and all living systems organise themselves in this way and have been successful, until mankind started to try to control the system for their own needs.
Theory U: Leading from the Emerging Future from Otto Scharmer at MIT is a model that is used across all types organisation for social change by creating the capacity for community and organisational wisdom. Theory U encourages leaders to step into and shape the emerging future. Leadership styles found in these organisations are about participatory leadership – leadership that contributes through service…fosters organisational cohesion around a shared purpose…builds meaningful relationships with all stakeholders, encourages participation and collaboration…and always acknowledges the potential of the people in the organisations to collectively create the future that wants to emerge.
