Reinventing Organizations

There are many reasons to be concerned about where humanity is going.

And there are just as many reasons or more to be excited about how it’s evolving.

It’s your choice.

"Doom is inevitable. Gloom is optional. Gloom has no positive effects on ameliorating doom. Doom happens. Gloom is a choice.”  - Seth Godin, on October 6th, 2018.

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If gloom is a choice, so is wonder.

I get really excited when I find a new idea that could help humanity get better. It doesn’t have to be big, but when it is, it gives me extra joy.

That’s how I felt as I was reading Reinventing Organization, by Frederic Laloux. My friend Fabien, CEO of Kestio, told me about Laloux several years ago already, as he was turning his company (Kestio) into a self-managed organization. But for some reason, I waited until last December to dig into Laloux’s 350-page book, a substantially documented piece of research on a new paradigm that could shape the companies of the future: the TEAL model. This book ignited a movement that led an international community of people to come up with a wiki, an online platform, and even a global conference. It’s a phenomenon. Self-published with no PR, it has already sold over 600.000 copies and has been translated into numerous languages.

Here is the overview you’ll be able to also find on Wikipedia:

A Teal organization is defined by the three following ideas in contrast to the paradigms of Amber, Orange and Green organizations:

• self-management suggests a system based on peer relationships with no need for hierarchy, consensus, nor central command and control;
• wholeness is about enabling employees to present their full personas rather than just their work personas;
• evolutionary purpose is the idea to follow the natural evolution of how the organization grows

The paradigm is that an organization is similar to an organism in that the inner biology of the organism operates autonomously to sustain its health. This includes adapting to change, enabling employees to bring all their skills to the organization and to do so without direct leadership.

Companies like Roche, Patagonia, Morning Star, and many others already use this model.

I’ve been exploring the topic of TEAL organizations almost non-stop since December, watching dozens of talks, reading feedback reviews (including the gloomy ones too - I want the pros and cons!), attending the Teal Around The World Conference.

I just couldn’t wait any longer and had to share this resource with you in case you didn’t know about it already.

If the 350 pages scare you, get the summarized and wonderfully illustrated version. You’ll love it.

Happy Reading!

Guillaume