Recommendation: Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux

I recently finished reading Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux and I highly recommend this book, as it was highly recommended to me by Sarah Nehrling and Yamila Solari.

We are quite familiar with what we know to be traditional organizational structures. These hierarchical power structures have existed for centuries under one form or another. I found this YouTube video, Rules for Rulers, to provide a nice description of these traditional structures. According to this, such structures follow three simple rules: Keep key supporters on your side, control the treasure and minimize the number of key supporters you have. Sound familiar?

In a nutshell, Laloux walks us through a unique overview of organizational consciousness through the lens of development theory and describes twelve new organizations that he had become aware of that have completely turned away from these traditional power structures.

Reinventing Organizations is the only book about organizations and business that has brought real tears to my eyes while reading it through.

The tears came at times when I recollected different tensions and frustrations I experienced or watched others experience during my 30 years working primarily at UBC and also elsewhere. Where someone had to put on their work mask to hide their true identity. Where someone lashed out in anger when they didn’t feel heard. Where new employees soured within six months when promises weren’t kept. Where leaders started to show the weariness on their faces when the bureaucracy took over their schedules and their lives. Where managers could no longer hide their frustration in having to implement a decision made without their input because they know how they could have made that work. Where unions became easier to work with than the HR department. Where employees were only seen as workers with few signs of humanity.

It also echoed some of my own desires for the workplace. The ability to see the organization as a living organism that can change and adapt when necessary. That more coaches could make a difference in what are typically HR processes. That consultation with stakeholders needed to be more than superficial. That conflict resolution didn’t have to be farmed out to external consultants.

Reinventing Organizations has become my latest Bible, providing me with an interesting perspective for observing behaviour. It has given me a new framework for understanding why things go wrong in the workplace and what would need to change in order to make things work better.

It also helps explain why I have chosen to focus on leaders as a leadership consultant and coach. Organizations only change when the leader is willing to share the power and is able to hold the space for self-management, striving for wholeness and listening to evolutionary purpose and has reached self-actualization themselves, which is the highest developmental level. For a leader who has reached or is moving to self-actualization in a hierarchical power structure, they can only focus on ensuring the health of their own team.

So don’t be surprised if this book comes up in our next conversation.

I would love to have a conversation with anyone who has read it.

Photo: Tammy Brimner/TLBVelo Photography