Category: Self-Management
-
Self-Management Isn’t the Absence of Structure, Just a Different Kind
When people first hear about self-management as an organizational structure, a pretty reliable reaction comes up. It usually sounds something like: So… it’s just chaos? Nobody’s in charge? Anyone can do whatever they want? It’s an understandable assumption. If you remove the org chart, the titles, the manager who approves your decisions and signs off…
-
The Art of Collaborative Leadership: Leading and Following at the Same Time
There’s a quiet assumption baked into most of our ideas about leadership that leaders lead, and followers follow, and never the twain shall meet. You’re either at the front of the room or you’re in the seats. You’re either the one with the answers or the one with the questions. Leadership, in this view, is…
-
Building the Bridge to Decentralized Organizations
Last week, a friend sent me a McKinsey Quarterly article titled “A new operating model for a new world.” She leads a very rare and special doctoral program in transpersonal leadership and business at Sofia University, and she has been reading my book, Organizing for Impact. Her message to me, with the article included, contained…
-
Why Hierarchies Struggle to Build Adaptive Organizations
Recent research from Gartner reveals a stunning statistic. Seventy-nine percent of employees don’t trust their organization’s ability to change effectively. The majority believe their organization has made poor change decisions in the past and will likely fail in the future. This goes far deeper than poor change management. Organizations have a legitimacy problem. The same…
-
Building Infrastructure for Self-Managing Organizations
I’ll be honest, I’m spread thin right now. Building infrastructure for self-managing organizations across multiple channels and services centered around my recent book, Organizing for Impact, is definitely a lot. Some days it feels like too much, like I’m trying to gain visibility and traction with seven different things at once, and doing none of…
-
Why I Keep Fighting for People-Positive Workplaces
Every week for the past year and a half, I’ve shown up to write about something most organizations still treat as optional: creating people-positive workplaces where people can actually thrive. I published a book. I launched a Substack. I wrote blog posts exploring everything from dehumanizing corporate language to the mechanics of distributed decision-making. I’ve…
-
Five Corporate Beliefs That Block Distributed Leadership (And What to Believe Instead)
Most leaders I work with genuinely want to create more collaborative, empowering workplaces. They’re drawn to the idea of distributed leadership, where authority and decision-making aren’t concentrated at the top but spread throughout the organization based on expertise and proximity to the work. However, when it comes time to actually let go of control and…
-
From Hierarchy to Agreements: What It Really Means to Distribute Power
The shift from hierarchy to agreements is one of the most fundamental transformations an organization can make. Picture this: You’re in a meeting, and your team has spent weeks researching a solution to a persistent problem. The data is clear, the approach is sound, and everyone who will be affected by the decision is aligned.…
-
Shaping a New Leadership Playbook for a Complex World
There’s a kind of leadership style that once felt like the gold standard. It was all about decisiveness, structure, and holding the reins firmly. In times of uncertainty, it gave people something to rally around: a confident voice, a clear chain of command, and the promise that someone, somewhere, had things under control. But the…
-
Creating Psychologically Safe Workplaces Amid Uncertainty
In times of heightened uncertainty, people look to their workplaces not just as places to earn a living, but as safe havens where they can express themselves without fear. Yet many workplaces fall short when it comes to fostering a true sense of psychological safety, especially for those already facing marginalization or increased vulnerability. In…