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Organizing work, creating value:

the story so far.

by Jack Martin Leith


F o u n de r o f C a n a v e r a l
canaveral.international
92% of HR and business leaders
surveyed by Deloitte cited organization
design as their top priority.
Source: Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2016.
Until we challenge our
foundational beliefs, we wont be
able to build organizations that
are substantially more capable
Gary Hamel than the ones we have today.

We need to remind ourselves that


bureaucracy was an invention,
and that whatever replaces it will
also be an invention.
Source: Bureaucracy Must Die, by Gary Hamel, in Harvard
Business Review.
The Aristotelian-Ptolemaic
universe was a purposeful,
goal-directed universe.
Events such as planetary
motion were understood in
terms of a striving to fulfill a
natural purpose.
God played an important
intimate role in this
universe; His thoughts
(purposes) were the
continual, sustaining cause
of all motion.
Source: University of Hawaii website.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)
Ren Descartes (1596 1650)

Isaac Newton (1642 1727)


The industrial revolution 1760 1840
Organisation chart

Created by Daniel C. McCallum


for New York & Erie Railroad in
1855.
Max Weber (1864 1920): Bureaucracy
Job specialization.
Authority hierarchy.
Formal selection based on
qualifications.
Formal rules and regulations.
Impersonality (no favouritism).
Career orientation.
Source: TyroCity.com.
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 1915)
It is only through enforced
standardization of methods, enforced
adoption of the best implements and
working conditions, and enforced
cooperation that this faster work can
be assured. And the duty of enforcing
the adoption of standards and
enforcing this cooperation rests with
management alone.
Source: The Principles of Scientific Management
(1911), by Frederick Winslow Taylor.
Mary Parker Follett (1868 1933)

Lateral processes within hierarchical


organizations (led directly to the formation of
first matrix-style organization: DuPont, 1920s).
Authority of expertise.
Power with, not power over Starhawk.
Coined the term win-win.
Embrace conflict as a mechanism of diversity.
Source: Wikipedia.
Alex Osborn

Creative director, BBDO advertising agency


Brainstorming
Diverge Converge
Quantity Quality
With Sidney Parnes:
Creative Education Foundation
Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving
Process
Read more on Wikipedia
Alexander Osborn in 1939, the year he
organized the first brainstorm sessions at
the innovative Madison Avenue ad agency
Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn
Evolution of innovation theory and practice
Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process.
Creative Problem Solving Group (aka CPSB).
NPD consultancies.
Synectics.
?What If!
Gary Hamel / Strategos: Shell GameChanger.
IDEO: design thinking.
Henry Chesbrough: open innovation.
Clayton Christensen: disruptive innovation.
Kurt Lewin (1890 1947)
Background: Gestalt psychology.
Resistance to change [see next slide].
Three-stage change process: Unfreeze,
Change, Freeze.
Force field analysis.
Authoritarian, democratic and laissez-
faire work environments.
Group communication.
Group dynamics.
National Training Laboratories for Group
Development organisation
development.
Resistance to change
In the organisational realm, the concept was originated by psychologist Kurt Lewin in the 1940s and
subsequently misinterpreted.
The following text is the abstract of Challenging Resistance to Change, a peer reviewed academic paper
written by Eric B. Dent (Fayetteville State University; University of Maryland University CollegeGraduate
School of Management and Technology) and Susan Galloway Goldberg (The George Washington University),
and published in Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 35 No. 1, March 1999 25-41.
This article examines the origins of one of the most widely accepted mental models that drives
organizational behavior: The idea that there is resistance to change and that managers must overcome it.
This mental model, held by employees at all levels, interferes with successful change implementation.
The authors trace the emergence of the term resistance to change and show how it became received
truth.
Kurt Lewin introduced the term as a systems concept, as a force affecting managers and employees
equally.
Because the terminology, but not the context, was carried forward, later uses increasingly cast the
problem as a psychological concept, personalizing the issue as employees versus managers.
Acceptance of this model confuses an understanding of change dynamics. Letting go of the term and
the model it has come to embody will make way for more useful models of change dynamics.
See also The Fallacy of Resistance to Change, by Jack Martin Leith.
Richard Beckhard

Change formula:
David Gleicher (1960s) Richard Beckhard (1970s)
Kathie Dannemiller (1980s).
D = Dissatisfaction with how things are now;
V = Vision of what is possible;
F = First, concrete steps that can be taken towards
the vision;
Must be greater than
R = Resistance.

Read more on Wikipedia


Peter Drucker

Management by objectives (1954).


The knowledge worker (1959).
Employees are assets not liabilities.
Decentralization and simplification.
Predicted the end of the blue collar worker.
Originator of outsourcing concept.
Community advocate.
A companys primary responsibility is to serve its customers.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast.
Eric Trist (Tavistock Institute) and Ken Bamforth
(trade unionist)
1951: Some social and
psychological consequences
of the longwall method of
coal getting.
Multiskilled autonomous
groups, interchanging roles,
and shifts with minimal
supervision allowed them to
mine coal 24 hours a day,
without waiting for a previous
shift to finish.
In spite of that eras prevailing
belief that high productivity
came with doing the same
task over and over, productivity
soared.
Developed by Douglas McGregor at MIT Sloan School of Management during the 1960s.
Read more on Wikipedia
W. Edwards Deming

Genesis: Japan, 1950.


Widespread: 1980s.
Statistical process control.
Total Quality Management.
PDSA cycle.
14 Points.
System of Profound Knowledge
Four lenses through which to view the world:
Appreciating a system
Understanding variation
Psychology Motorola: Six Sigma
Toyota: Lean manufacturing
Epistemology
Systems theories
General Systems Theory (Ludwig von Bertalanffy;
1940s).
Cybernetics (Norbert Weiner, Ross Ashby,
Warren McCulloch, Gregory Bateson; 1950s).
Second-order cybernetics (Living systems:
Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela; Autopoiesis1972).
Management cybernetics (Stafford Beer; 1959).
System dynamics (Jay Forrester; 1950s).
Soft systems methodology (Peter Checkland; 1970s).
Socio-technical systems (Fred Emery, Eric Trist, Ken Bamforth; 1950s).
Complex systems (e.g. Ralph Stacey; 1990s).
Ecosystem metaphor.
Stafford Beer

Management cybernetics
Viable System Model
POSIWID
Fred Emery and Merrelyn Emery
Participative Design Workshop (1971)
Design Principle 1
Redundancy of parts
Design Principle 2
Redundancy of functions
Six criteria
1. Elbow room for decision making.
2. Opportunities for continuous
on-the-job learning.
3. Sufficient variety.
4. Mutual support and respect.
5. Meaningfulness.
6. A desirable future, not a dead end.
Read more
Participative systemic change methods
1985
Large Group Interactive Process
Ford Motor Company
Real Time Strategic Change (Robert W. Jake
Jacobs), aka Whole-Scale (Dannemiller Tyson
Associates)
Future Search
Marvin Weisbord, Sandra Janoff
Precursor: Search Conferences (Emery & Trist,
1960)
Open Space Technology
Harrison Owen
Liberian tribal gathering
Third Annual Symposium on Organization
Transformation
Download Creating collaborative gatherings using
large group interventions, by Jack Martin Leith
Shareholder value

The idea that the sole purpose


of a firm is to make money for
its shareholders got going in a
major way with an article by
Milton Friedman in the New
York Times on 13 September
1970.
View source
The dumbest idea in the world.
Jack Welch
(During his tenure at GE, the Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for
companys value rose 4,000%.) a beautiful moment in time we created
a lot of value for shareholders.
David Cooperrider: Appreciative Inquiry

4D model (1990).
Social constructionism: Reality is
socially constructed. Organisations
are created, maintained and changed
by conversations.
See Wikipedia.
The strategy for an alternative future is to
focus on ways a shift in conversation can
shift the context and thereby create an
intentional future.
Source: Civic Engagement and the
Restoration of Community: Changing the
Nature of the Conversation, by Peter Block.
The design sector: Pentagram

Founded in 1972.
Worlds largest independent design consultancy.
Multi-disciplinary.
Flat: 21 partners (a group of friends) + designers & architects.
No CEO, CFO or board.
Equal ownership.
Equal pay for partners.
Equal participation and control
of the groups destiny.
Renewal: 1st 2nd 3rd
generation partners.
Source: Wikipedia.
Business process reengineering

Michael Hammer,
Reengineering Work:
Don't Automate,
Obliterate, in Harvard
Business Review, 1990.
Michael Hammer and
James Champy.
Reengineering the
Corporation:
Manifesto for Business
Revolution, 1993.
World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee, 1989.
Internal communications

Smythe Dorward Lambert (Wolff Olins breakaway 1989).


Lotus Notes.
Sharepoint.
Intranets.
Enterprise communications.
Peter Senge (1990) System dynamics
Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt (1958)
Bryan J. Smith (1994)
Tannenbaum & Schmidt Bryan Smith

How to choose a leadership pattern, by Robert Tannenbaum The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies for Building a
and Warren H. Schmidt, in Harvard Business Review (1958) Learning Organization, by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte
Roberts, Rick Ross and Bryan J. Smith (1994)
Leadership

Tao Te Ching (4th century BC). Outdoor leadership development (1990s).


Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958). Leadership Development Framework
Managerial grid (Robert Blake and Jane (Bill Torbert & David Rooke, 1990s).
Mouton, 1964). Servant leadership (Robert Greenleaf,
Situational leadership (Paul Hersey and 1991).
Ken Blanchard, 1970s). Host leadership (Mark McKergow, 2014).
Stephen Bungay: The executives trinity
management, leadership and command

NASA Mission Control Center, Houston

The executives trinitymanagement, leadership and command, by Stephen Bungay, Director, Ashridge
Strategic Management Centre
Coaching

GROW model:
Timothy Galwey: Inner Game
Sir John Whitmore
Alan Fine
Graham Alexander (1980s)
NLP coaching.
Gestalt coaching.
Systemic coaching.
Narrative coaching.
Somatic coaching.
Action learning
Reg Revans.
Genesis: 1950s.
Widespread: 1990s.
Director of education, National Coal Board.
Collaborators: E. F. Schumacher and Eric Trist.
Revans Academy, Manchester Business School.
Read more on Wikipedia
Organisational culture

The idea of culture as shared


beliefs or values goes back at least
to Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker
(1961). View source
In Search of Excellence, by Tom
Peters and Robert Waterman
(1982).
Edgar Schein
Edgar Schein (1985).
Social constructionism:
Culture is conversation.
Values
Values and Lifestyles: VALS Group, SRI International (1978).
Spiral DynamicsMastering Values, Leadership, and Change: Don Beck
and Christopher Cowan (1996).
Strategy
Sun Tzu, Chinese general; The Art of
War (544 496 BC).
Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian general
(early 1800s).
Michael Porter (1980s).
Strategy can be framed as a plan, a
pattern, a position, a perspective, or a
ploy. Source: Henry Mintzberg, The
Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning
(1994). Read more
Strategy innovation (Gary Hamel, late
1990s)
Business model innovation (Alex
Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur, 2008).
Strategy: an organising idea

The Prussian General Staff, under the


elder von Moltke, did not expect a
plan of operations to survive beyond
the first contact with the enemy. They
set only the broadest of objectives and
emphasized seizing unforeseen
opportunities as they arose. Strategy
was not a lengthy action plan. It was
the evolution of a central idea
through continually changing
circumstances.
Source: The return of von Clausewitz, in
The Economist.
SpaceX mission and strategy

Read more: How (and Why) SpaceX Will Colonize Mars, by Tim Urban, Wait But Why, from his
interview with Elon Musk.
John Kotter

Book: Leading Change (1996).


8-Step Process for Leading Change:
1. Create a sense of urgency.
2. Build a guiding coalition.
3. Form a strategic vision and initiatives.
4. Enlist a volunteer army.
5. Enable action by removing barriers.
6. Generate short-term wins.
7. Sustain acceleration.
8. Institute change.
Read more
Engagement

1970s, 1980s: Employee satisfaction.


1990: Employee engagement (Psychological conditions of personal engagement and
disengagement at work, by William A. Kahn, in Academy of Management Journal).
1990s: Gallup Q12 employee engagement measurement tool.
2015: KPMG drops annual engagement surveysNot evidence based. (Source:
KPMG dumps abused staff surveys, by Agnes King, in Financial Review.)
Engage in what, and for whose
ultimate benefit?
The Agile Manifesto (2001)
The Business Case for Purpose
Deloitte Global 2015 Millennial
Survey
Deloitte 2016 Global Human
Capital Trends
IDT Survey 2015: Skills for
digital transformation
Purpose

Is your company worth believing in? The


most successful companies are those who
have a purpose shared by all stakeholders,
which motivates everyone involved to
greater success.
Source: Wake Up & Shake Up Your Company, by Andrew
Campbell and Richard Koch (1993).
Employees Business leaders

See Putting Purpose to Work: A study of purpose in the workplace, by PwC.


Additional information
The Talent Factor
77 percent of Millennials believe that businesses must be driven by more than profit, and
choose their place of work based on their employers purpose.
Source: Deloitte Global 2015 Millennial Survey.
In almost equal measure, Millennials, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers have the career goals of
Help solve social and/or environmental challenges and Do work I am passionate about.
Source: IBM Institute for Business ValueMyths, Exaggerations and Uncomfortable Truths: The
Real Story Behind Millennials in the Workplace.
Barry Schwartz, professor of psychology at Swarthmore College and author of Why We
Work, is optimistic. When I spoke to him recently, he observed that as the millennials
ascend, they will change organizations because meaning is an important part of their
agenda and workplaces are going to have to listen or else [they] are not going to get the
best talent.
Source: Paychecks with a Purpose, by Susan Cramm, in strategy+business.
Purpose
At the leadership level, there is a
sizable disconnect between how
important purpose is claimed to be for
business and how central purpose
actually is to business decisions.
79% of business leaders believe that
purpose is central to business
success and to an organizations
existence; yet, only 34% agree that
purpose is a guidepost for leadership
decision-making.
Without purpose as the bedrock of an
organization, all efforts to build
purpose constructs upon it will prove
futile.
Source: Putting Purpose to Work: A study of
purpose in the workplace, by PwC.
Purpose
Purpose is not an initiative; it is a way of business.
It must be core to the decisions, conversations, and behaviors across all
levels to be authentic and deliver the wealth of advantages it promises.
Now, more than ever, companies must cultivate the power of purpose if
they are to succeed in a world where the opportunitiesand
responsibilitiesof business have never been greater.
Source: Putting Purpose to Work: A study of purpose in the workplace, by PwC.
Frederic Laloux: Reinventing Organizations (2014)

Former McKinsey consultant.


Teal organisations.
Fundamental characteristics:
Self-management
Wholeness
Evolutionary purpose
Frederic Laloux (based on Ken Wilber and Spiral Dynamics)
Magenta Amber
Wilber colour code Red Orange
Green Teal Turquoise

How the org is seen Machine Family Living system

Jack Martin Leith


Aristotelian- Newtonian-
Worldview Ptolmaic Cartesian
Pre-systemic Systemic Post-systemic

How world is seen Gods work Machine Network System Web of life
Holacracy

A comprehensive practice for structuring, governing, and running


an organization. A complete system for self-organization.
Originated by Brian Robertson, a former software engineer.
Named and introduced in 2007.
Dynamic roles replace static job descriptions.
Distributed authority replaces delegated authority.
Rapid iterations replace big re-orgs.
Transparent rules replace office politics.
Tensions drive everything. A tension is a persons felt sense that
there is a gap between current reality and a potential future, between
what is and what could be.
Holacracy
Holacracy: generic roles

Lead Link A Role that holds the Purpose of the overall Circle. The Lead Link is
responsible for assigning people to Roles that have been created through
Governance Meetings. The Lead Link also allocates resources and defines
Priorities, Strategies, and Metrics within the Circle.
Rep Link An elected Role used to represent the interests of a sub-Circle to its
super-Circle. Also note that the Lead Link of a Circle may not serve as the
Rep Link of that Circle. Rep Links allow Tensions from the sub-Circle to be
processed by the super-Circle when the issue seems to extend beyond the
sub-Circles current authority.
Secretary An elected Role with the Purpose of aligning Circle Governance and
operations with the Constitution through maintaining Circle records,
scheduling meetings, and interpreting Governance upon request. The
Secretary works actively and collaboratively with the Facilitator during
Governance and Tactical Meetings.

Source: A glossary of key Holacracy terms.


Home-grown self-organisation operating systems
Product Owner
Examples:
Spotify
Morning Star Company
W.L. Gore & Associates
Patagonia
Buurtzorg
Medium
August How Spotify organises work
Agile + Lean Start-up.
Squad: A development team with a long-term mission.
Download Scaling Agile @ Spotify with Tribes, Tribe: A collection of squads working in related areas.
Squads, Chapters & Guilds (pdf), by Henrik Chapter: People with similar expertise.
Kniberg & Anders Ivarsson
Guild: A cross-tribe community of interest.
Ultimately, and somewhat ironically, the next
generation of self-managing teams is demanding a
new generation of leaderssenior individuals with
the vision to see where it is best to set aside
hierarchy for another way of operating, but also
with the courage to defend hierarchy where it
serves the institutions fundamental goals.
Source: Beyond the Holacracy Hype, by Ethan Bernstein, John Bunch, Niko Canner, and
Michael Lee, in Harvard Business Review.
Jack Martin Leith is the founder of Canaveral,
which helps organizations transform
challenges into widespread value through
collaboration-centric missions.
Email: jack@ canaveral.international
Tel: 07583 601234 (+44 7583 601234)
Skype: jackmartinleith
Web: canaveral.international

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