Leadermorphosis

Sofia and Luís talk about the self-organisation journey at global software engineering company, Mindera. With 900+ employees and counting, they have evolved as a company without managers through experiments guided by questions like: Will this bring more autonomy? Is it human friendly? This has resulted in some remarkable employee-designed processes, like their self-managed salary system, and their unique office space in Porto, Portugal. Sofia, Mindera’s co-founder, and Luís (whose title is ‘Self-Organisation Enthusiast and Learning Geek’) share what they have learned from their journey and how they have developed as individuals themselves. Resources: The Mindera employee handbook Luís’ talk from the Teal Around the World conference Mindera’s website (check out the blogs about why they have no managers, and how their salary process has evolved)

Aaron Dignan, author of Brave New Work and founder of The Ready, is back on the podcast, this time to talk about how his new software startup, Murmur, can help organisations scale new ways of working. We talk about the importance of team agreements and how to keep them alive, plus what Aaron and his colleagues have been learning from their latest explorations in the worlds of self-management, DAOs and their Brave New Work podcast. Resources: Learn more about Murmur: https://www.murmur.com/ Learn more about The Ready, Aaron’s book Brave New Work: https://theready.com/ and you can buy the Tension and Practice cards here Listen to the previous Leadermorphosis episode with Aaron here Listen to the episode of me on Aaron and Rodney’s Brave New Work podcast talking about embracing discomfort and transforming conflicts – on Apple podcast; Spotify

Ria Baeck and J.D. Nasaw. Ria and J.D. are both coaches and facilitators who combine scientific research of trauma with embodied practices of collective intelligence and wisdom.  In our conversation, we discuss questions like: what does trauma have to do with new ways of working? How can we be more conscious collaborators? What are examples of embodied practices we can use so that our journey of new ways of working is not only an intellectual one? Ria has thirty years of experience as a therapist, and J.D. is particularly interested in the intersection of somatics, self-management, social justice, and regeneration. Both are associates at Greaterthan for which they have developed a course called Trauma Informed Collaboration. Resources: More information about the Trauma Informed Collaboration course Greaterthan’s website Learn more about Enspiral Learn more about Percolab A beginner’s guide to Polyvagal Theory from Rhythm of Regulation See also the Leadermorphosis episode with Miki Kashtan

Alice Sheldon is the author of ‘Why Weren’t We Taught This at School?’ and the founder of Needs Understanding, an approach for finding creative solutions and building relationships at home and at work. I love how Alice shares practical tools and stories to bring to life some of the principles of Nonviolent Communication. She also coaches me through an example of an organisation where there is a tension between two groups: those who are enthusiastic about self-management and those sceptical about it. A great episode if you want to upgrade your self-awareness and communication skills. Resources: The Needs Understanding website www.needs-understanding.com Alice’s book, ‘Why Weren’t We Taught This at School?’ The needs list PDF we mention (and other useful lists)

Matt Perez realised that his successful career as a boss in a Silicon Valley tech company had made him a worse person and so he co-founded Nearsoft in 2007 to be a company that works for everyone. His recent book, Radical Companies Without Bosses or Employees, takes self-organisation one step further to include co-ownership so that people aren’t dependent on what he calls ‘enlightened monarchs.’ We talk about what he’s been learning, including the development of a distribution mechanism that decentralises ownership and supports egalitarian and equitable wealth sharing based on contribution. Resources: Matt’s book ‘Radical Companies’ Related Leadermorphosis episodes: Listen to the episode with Anabel Montiel to learn more about Nearsoft Listen to the episode with Jabi Salcedo and Dunia Reverter from K2K

Kate Beecroft works on ecosystem and community building at Centrifuge, the decentralised asset financing protocol. She has been involved in Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) since 2018 and brings to them her experience of self-managing organisations as the co-founder of Greaterthan and a long-time member of Enspiral. We talk about common critiques of DAOs and Web3, as well as how we could share learning more across the worlds of self-managing organisations, DAOs and cooperatives. For listeners totally new to the world of DAOs and Web3, here are two starting points: This Forbes article: What Are DAOs And Why You Should Pay Attention The Brave New Work podcast episode with Chase Chapman (see also their DAO mini-series) Resources: The paper Kate co-authored, The Dissensus Protocol The episode of the ‘On the Other Side’ podcast we mention Elizabeth M. Renieris’ article ‘Amid the Hype over Web3, Informed Skepticism Is Critical’ Richard D. Bartlett, Stephen Reid and Rufus Pollock on Critical Exp

Swarnalakshmi Ravi is the former national prime minister of India's Inclusive Neighbourhood Children's Parliament. The children’s parliament movement is an example of how simple but effective governance principles and structures can make children’s voices heard and empower them to take collective action on issues that affect their lives. Swarna shares her experiences both as a child participating in these parliaments and now as an adult supporting the development of the Provisional World Children’s Parliament. What can we learn from this movement about inclusion, accessibility and collaboration? Resources: The documentary ‘Power to the Children’: https://www.powertothechildren-film.com/ The book ‘Hello, Neighbourocracy!’: https://leanpub.com/helloneighbourocracy See also Sociocracy for All’s websites for more resources related to neighbourhood and children’s parliaments: https://www.sociocracyforall.org/

Marwa Farouq leads the Global Operations Circle in Teach for All, which is a global network of partner organisations developing collective leadership to improve education and expand opportunity for all children. Marwa shares what she’s learned from exploring new ways of working at Teach for All, including dismantling the senior leadership team, moving decisions closer to the work, embracing tensions and liberating untapped leadership through their core value of diversity, equity and inclusion. Marwa is originally from Egypt and over her almost 20-year career she has led organisational development, culture transformation, and change management initiatives as well as being a seasoned executive coach and Nonviolent Communication practitioner. Resources: Teach for All’s website https://teachforall.org/ A video where two Teach for All network leaders share ‘The Leadership Mindset Shifts That Have Enabled Progress in Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion’ https://teachforall.org/news/leadership-mindset-shifts-have-e

Ravi Resck was born to hippy parents in Brazil, became a computer network engineer, and then travelled the world as a guitarist, discovering a love of facilitation and social design. Today he goes by tags like hacktivist, org designer, facilitator, and systems mapper, sharing social technologies with others in a fun and accessible way. He works as a consultant at Target Teal, a collective exploring new ways of working, including an open-source fork of Holacracy called Organic Organization (or O2). We talk about why he believes lessons from self-management and Sociocratic-inspired models benefit all organisations, not just the ‘already-converted’, and Ravi shares some of his favourite examples of organisations and communities at the cutting edge of new ways of collaborating. Ravi is definitely one to watch in the future of work space! Resources: Target Teal’s website https://targetteal.com/en/ Learn more about Organic Organization https://targetteal.com/en/organic-organization/ Sociocracy for All’s page about

Jos de Blok is the founder of Buurtzorg, a home care organisation in the Netherlands with 15,000 nurses and no managers. We talk about how their decentralised, human approach has helped them during the pandemic, why he believes ‘protocolising things’ in organisations does damage, and his advice for leaders and traditional top-down organisations that are embarking on transformation processes. It was an honour to talk to one of my heroes and to hear him speak with such heart. Enjoy! Resources: My interview with the Buurtzorg nurses from the Houten team: https://leadermorphosis.co/ep-26-buurtzorg-and-the-power-of-self-managed-teams-of-nurses More about the book ‘Organizational Innovation by Integrating Simplification: Learning from Buurtzorg Nederland’ https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-11725-6

Michael Bungay Stanier is on a mission to ‘un-weird coaching’ and make it a skill set available to anyone. His books have sold over a million copies and Michael has taught more than 200,000 people. As a big fan of his writing, I wanted to talk to him about why being more ‘coach-like’ is so valuable – both for us and for the people we work with – and how to get better at it. We also discussed what Michael’s learned from handing over the role of CEO at the company he founded, his new book ‘How to Begin’, and why he’s interested in exploring the power of giving away power... Resources: Michael’s website https://www.mbs.works/ Michael’s new book, ‘How to Begin: A Proven Plan to Start Something That Matters’ https://www.mbs.works/how-to-begin/ Michael’s podcast ‘Two Pages with MBS’ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/ The book Michael mentions: ‘The Power of Giving Away Power’ by Matthew Barzun

The current models for how we measure things in organisations tend to produce compliance at their best, and dysfunctions at their worst. Andy Brogan has developed an alternative tool called Confirmation Practices that he hopes could one day completely shift how we see regulation, accreditation and accountability in general. Joined by Helen Sanderson, we discuss examples of where Confirmation Practices have made a difference (such as in a pathology service) and why this tool helps ‘put the elephant in the room’. It’s all about going from scorekeeping to sense making. Andy Brogan is the founding partner of Easier Inc, providing consultancy services to a range of clients and sectors and is particularly passionate about the future of public services. Before that he worked in healthcare as a  senior manager in the NHS (National Health Service) in the UK. Helen Sanderson has been on the podcast before and is the founder of Wellbeing Teams, the first self-managed teams in social care to be inspected by the Care Qual

Margaret Heffernan is an author, speaker, business leader and professor. She has written six books and her TED talks have been seen by more than 12 million people. We talk about the ‘status quo trap’ in organisations, myths about whistleblowers, her thoughts on self-management and learning to embrace tough questions. Finally, she shares why her main focus now is the climate crisis. Follow Margaret on Twitter: @M_Heffernan Resources: Margaret’s website and more information about her latest book Margaret’s Medium post ‘Three problems of power’ Margaret’s brilliant TED talks

Pasteur Byabeza is the lead link of the Student Care Circle at Davis College, a higher learning institution in Rwanda. He is one of the pioneers who has been driving the college’s transition to becoming a self-managed, Holacratic organisation. Though they are early in their journey, taking steps like disbanding the global council and replacing management hierarchies with distributed decision making have already had a huge impact on people’s engagement levels. Pasteur shares what he has learned so far with honesty and contagious passion. Resources: The Davis College website To learn more about Holacracy, you can listen to Leadermorphosis episodes 31 and 32 with Holacracy pioneer Brian Roberston or visit the Holacracy website Other education-related episodes of Leadermorphosis include: Ep. 46 – students from Learnlife talking about a new, self-directed paradigm of learning in the education sector Ep. 16 – Marianne Osorio talking about Sociocracy in schools and more

Bayo Akomolafe is a Nigerian author, professor, chief curator of The Emergence Network and is often known for his poetic and provocative take on big topics such as global crisis and social change. We talk about what he calls 'generative incapacitation' and the kind of leadership that’s needed in these times, how the Covid pandemic is disrupting our norms, embracing failure and allowing ourselves to be lost... and I also posed some questions to him about my worries regarding the reinventing work movement. It's a deep conversation so perhaps listen to this out on a walk! Resources: Bayo’s website A beautiful conversation with Bayo on For The Wild on slowing down for urgent times A video of Bayo being interviewed by friend of the Leadermorphosis podcast Skeena Rathor for Extinction Rebellion ideas exchange (And you can listen to my conversation with Skeena here, Leadermorphosis ep. 47) The conversation with Miki Kashtan I reference (Leadermorphosis ep. 37) The conversation with Margaret Wheatley I refer

“Command authority is a poor basis for life.” Jocelyn Davis is an author, speaker and the former head of R&D at global consultancy The Forum Corporation. We talk about how she weaves together the threads of leadership, Eastern philosophy and dramatic literature. Her insights on group development, leadership as influence, and ‘climate’ in teams are really relevant for those interested in self-managing organisations. Resources: Jocelyn's book The Art of Quiet Influence Jocelyn’s website Jocelyn’s article about 8 traps for leaders in the corporate world Jocelyn on Twitter: @JocelynRDavis

Sam Conniff and Alex Barker’s books ‘Be More Pirate’ and ‘How to Be More Pirate’ have sparked a movement of people around the world who want to shake things up, to create new business models and systems that are better for people and planet. The tagline on their website says: "Being more pirate is a shift in your mindset; a willingness to think differently, to challenge and be challenged, and to stop asking for permission to do what you know is right.” I wanted to talk to Sam and Alex about what we can learn from the golden age of pirates 300 years ago, and to share some examples of organisations that have been inspired to transform. Resources: Be More Pirate website Be More Pirate meetup events (online and in-person) Reinventing Organisations website (about Frederic Laloux's work) How to follow Alex and Sam: Twitter: @AlexandraBarke1 and @SamConniff

Topi Jokinen is one of the founders of a small Finnish company in the construction sector called Vertia. Since 2018, Topi has been leading a transformation in the company based on the idea of self-organising cells to help it grow and develop. He is perhaps the first CEO I have met who has done this level of personal and professional development and he shares with heart and humility what his leadership journey has been. We also talk about Vertia’s radical structures and practices, such as a transparent and collaborative salary model, as well as what Topi has learned about stepping back and letting go as a co-founder and CEO. Resources: The Vertia case study produced by Amara Collaboration Vertia’s website A page about the Advice Process and collaborative decision making from the Reinventing Organisations wiki How to follow Topi: Twitter: @TopiJokinen

Filmmakers Anna Thomson and David Baksh talk to me about Yoghurt Utopia, their documentary about a yoghurt company whose mission is to provide work and accommodation for people living with mental illness in the Catalonia region in Spain. Having spent several years with some of the workers of La Fageda and its inimitable founder, Cristobal Colon, they share what they have learned about this remarkable workplace and what lessons we can learn in terms of diversity, inclusion, and meaning at work. Resources: The trailer for the Yoghurt Utopia documentary The Yoghurt Utopia Facebook page, where you can follow updates about what film festivals it’s featured in, where you can see it etc. Anna Thomson’s article for The Huffington Post about the film ‘Cultivating a worker’s paradise’, article in The Guardian The La Fageda website (in Catalan)

Yuji Yamada is the founder of EnFlow and is interested in exploring the differences between approaching organisational transformation from a ‘Western lens’ and a Japanese lens. We talk about teal organisations from Frederic Laloux’s book ‘Reinventing Organisations’ (which has sold 100,000 copies in Japan) and Yuji’s homegrown concept of ‘Jinen management’. Could East Asian organisations be at an advantage in developing new ways of working by drawing on their ancient wisdom and inherent cultural paradigms of interconnectedness?  How to follow Yuji: Twitter: @yujiyamada0522 Resources: Yuji’s Medium post, ‘The trends of Teal organization in Japan’ The book ‘The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently’ by Richard E. Nisbett Related Leadermorphosis episodes: Ep. 55 with Frederic Laloux, author of Reinventing Organisations Ep. 5 with Tom Nixon, founder of Maptio Ep. 49 with Peter Koenig about sourcework