All organizations exist to prevent deviance. Organizations aim for stability and end up in the middle. Not bad, but neither extraordinary. The natural focus is on what's wrong and to fix that. Think of the medical perspective, legal, and business. But in the middle is not where the magic happens...…
How can you get buy-in to do something about the culture? It's a question people ask me often. "It's obvious: our associates are unhappy with the way we do things around here". "Our factory's performance indicators go downhill." "Retention is a disaster: new hires leave within three months." "Employee health…
In this blog, I've been reviewing many small, personal ways to contribute to a more positive culture at work. But what if you want to engage your whole organization? In that case, a culture survey might be a good starting point. It helps to map where you are now and…
Here are the 21 best articles on Positive Leadership, Culture, and Change to date... My intention is to inspire toward positive organizations where both people and performance thrive. Positive organizations are better at change, more innovative, competitive, profitable, and they contribute to the world - while engaged people spread their…
Jim Ritchie-Dunham coined the term Ecosynomics. Ecosynomics provides a theoretical framework that shows the often hidden, underlying agreements that affect human collaboration, and how to change these fundamental assumptions. Energetic, high-performance teams start from a different initial assumption than economic scarcity. They start with abundance. Ecosynomics, the social science of…
Guest post by Graham Williams. We live in a sea of changes. Many have written of accelerated change in modern times. They come from all sides. Businesses face more unpredictable events stemming from within and from without: political, ecological, religious fundamentalism, social, financial and economic – which all feed off…
What are the challenges of organizational life? Your answer may contain silos, lack of trust, lack of decision making, politics, bureaucracy, communication issues, overwhelm, difficulty with change, rigidity and more… “Organizations are designed to produce these painful results!” That’s why Brian Robertson invented “Holacracy”. Does that work any better? I checked in with Ruben Timmerman of Springest to find out.
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Do you suffer from corporate obedience? Are you wealthier but not healthier and happier than your parents? Does your employer demand your “all” without guaranteeing a continuity of employment in return? Are you stressed, anxious, disengaged or frustrated?
Fair chance that you are trapped in an old-style steam-engine organization, custom-built to suppress collaborating, problem-solving, innovating and socializing. Perfect for repetitive tasks, standardization, and efficiency. Disastrous for inspiration, purpose, trust, innovation and making a difference to the greater good. So, what can you do to upgrade your industrial organization? (more…)
Guest post by Frederic Laloux.
There’s something broken in how we run organizations today. Institutes that poll thousands of people about happiness at work show that up to 60-75% are disengaged at work! They show up with their bodies, but that’s it – just to make a living.
This is the case not only at lower levels of organizations, where people have routine jobs and feel powerless. Even at the highest levels, senior leaders feel tired of email overload, meetings, the rat race, the silos, the political games they have to play, the tedious budget circles. This growing sense of tiredness – hints that there must be something more. (more…)
Can we create organizations free of the pathologies that show up all too often in the workplace? Free of politics, bureaucracy, and infighting; free of stress and burnout; free of resignation, resentment, and apathy; free of the posturing at the top and the drudgery at the bottom? Is it possible to reinvent organizations, to devise a new model that makes work productive, fulfilling, and meaningful? We organized a wonderful webinar with Frederic Laloux to find out how…. (more…)
There’s a new way of organizing and collaborating emerging around the globe – as Frederic Laloux shows in his book Reinventing Organizations. Let’s take a closer look at “new organizations” with a case study – and examine the three key things that they do differently: self-management, wholeness, and purpose.
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There’s something broken in how we run organizations today. Polls about happiness at work show that 60-75% of people are disengaged. Many professionals are tired of the rat race, tedious budget circles, office politics, cubicles, being controlled and feeling limited. They wonder: how’s what I’m doing serving a better world? Or: how’s my job helping me develop my unique talents? Well, at least it pays the rent… but I’m so tired/stressed/bored… (fill in the blanks). Isn’t it time for Organizational Evolution?
That’s why I left lifetime employment with golden handcuffs (wonderful salary and perks) seventeen years ago. I left a steady 40 hours a week to start working 60-80 hours with no guaranteed outcomes whatsoever. At the start, I sometimes lay awake at night, worrying about money – but I was never bored again – and I enjoyed everything I learned during my fascinating journey. I extended my development, creativity, autonomy, purpose, freedom – even though I always worked my *** off and it wasn’t always a walk in the park. But I was alive and in charge! I was not just making a living, but making a difference.