New Era Organizations – Distributed Authority
The world needs leaders who (1) believe there are better ways of organizing for work, (2) care enough to want to do something about it, (3) understand they need to learn more about what is possible from pioneering organizations, and (4) willing to chart a path toward that future.
Thought Leaders – published books
Four books were listed in the last newsletter as a foundation for the vision for the New Era Organization.?To these, we can add a fifth that was published in English last month –
·?????Medina, A., & Medina, R. (2023).?Teal trust transparency: A guide for self-organizing and new ways to organize and lead.?Future of Organizing AB.
***** Are there other books or articles that can be added to this list? *****
Featured Article
Distributed decision-making without Anarchy
As discussed in the last newsletter, one of the key building blocks of New Era Organizations is distributed authority
Two approaches to team decision-making often encountered in pioneering organizations are consent (move forward if no one dissents) or advice (any decision can be made if advice from others is sought first).?However, with such autonomy comes the potential (and fear) of anarchy without strong controls of authority in place.?The mistaken impression is that distributed decision-making means all central controls are eliminated.?The reality is that hard controls are eliminated but replaced with soft controls of operating principles being in tension.
Figure 1 shows the Principle of Autonomy in tension with the Principle of Purpose-alignment.?Freedom of autonomy is limited by boundaries and attraction established with a clearly defined and understood Purpose Statement.?Further, a Purpose Alignment Team (PaT) can easily be established to communicate the purpose, coach, and weave the network to bring about this purpose.?That still leaves the enablement and encouragement of distributed decision-making, especially when transitioning away from a hierarchical structure that retained the power of authority high in the hierarchy.?Figure 2 shows this door of enablement that is made possible with the Principles of Effectuation – establishing and nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset
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*** Your challenge ***
How can you speed up decision-making by giving people more autonomy through shifting from hard controls of delegated authority to distributed decision-making using operating principles in tension with each other?
Would you encourage the use of a consent decision process? ?Or, go full-on trust with an advice approach?
This then begs two questions – (1) How does the Principle of cross-organization Purpose-alignment work in practice and (2) how can an organization mix causation (goals drive resource procurement) and effectuation (doing what you can with what you have) when distributing decision-making across the organization.?These topics will be discussed in the next two newsletters.
Recommended Reading
·?????The State of Organizations 2023 – This McKinsey research report summarizes ten trends organizations are facing today.?Briefly, #1 is the need for increased speed and resilience in the face of increased pressure for organizational change. Areas of specific focus include: organizing for speed, which implies less reliance on formal, hierarchical decision-making and communication, delegated power that directly addresses the issue of autonomy, and continuous learning that complements adaptive change.?All these issues have been or will be addressed in this newsletter.
#4 discusses changing attitudes toward work that were already trending prior to COVID and became more pronounced since.?Organizations that are still rooted in the Industrial Era are facing these increased pressures that are driving #6 finding and retaining the talent needed for increased technology including AI (#3). ?
·?????Dear HR . . . – While HR has struggled to find a strategic role in many organizations, HR managers often led the way for responding to the pandemic.?This article challenges HR departments to continue taking a proactive role in leading organizations through change.?One interesting statistic mentioned is “60% of work is spent doing work about work – and not doing skilled tasks themselves.”?Work about work includes “communicating about work, searching for information, switching between apps, managing shifting priorities, and chasing the status of work.” ?Still missing from this list is the control of work that only further reduces the time spent doing work.?Pioneering organizations directly address these issues through several principles (focus on work, transparency, purpose alignment, and an entrepreneurial mindset).
·?????The Corporate Rebels Handbook series – One document found in most pioneering organizations is a handbook that documents their values and operating guidelines.?These handbooks play a critical role in on-boarding new employees as well as being a cornerstone for evaluating organization behaviors.?Parts of several handbooks have been shared over the last few years and I am thinking of synthesizing a handbook for use by others.?Please contact me at [email protected] if you are interested in collaborating on such a handbook.
Why this Newsletter
It is time to stop complaining about organization dysfunctions and start moving into the future – the post-Industrial organizations we need now for releasing people’s passions – places where people want to work.?
Send any questions or news you would like to see published to [email protected]
Thinker
1 年I believe a new control mechanism has emerged. No longer by command, process or results. A mechanism based on a communication formalization. This mechanism allows you to have control and at the same time agility. We can see it in Teal companies, holocracy, agile methods and the like.
Executive team member at A New Performance Era
1 年Ownership of the work at the right level in the organisation... a structured decision making process... a resourced support structure that kicks in when the unexpected occurs...talent > challenge...these are the corner stones of an intelligent organisation. With the above upskills in place and experienced then Followership works...forget the term leaders [ in its old context ], there is a more powerful dynamic in play when everyone knows when to lead on their work area and when to Follow.
Author, Speaker, and your Companion in Self-organizing, Teal, Agile, and Digital Journeys
1 年Alicia Medina PhD
Leadership & Career Coach | Organizational Development
1 年When thinking about distributed authority and decision-making, these conditions come to my mind: trust and mutual accountability across team members, as well as collective ownership of the outcomes.
Autor do E-book SYNtonize! 11.950696490 41.998096490 Orientador Instrutor Eng. de Produ??o Analista e Auditor de Sistemas TECNOLOGIA . ENGENHARIA . QUALIDADE Siga e contate #shineyournature nas redes SYN! Desde 1983 *
1 年A sensitive and delicate article, no doubt. It brings up the doubt of the leadership when it seeks to decide which path to follow between taking after talking to everyone or adopting the sense of the majority. Thanks for sharing with us, syn!