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Frédéric Laloux

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Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness Kindle Edition

by Frédéric Laloux (Author), Ken Wilber (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 1,891 ratings

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FROM THE BACKCOVER

The way we manage organizations seems increasingly out of date. Deep inside, we sense that more is possible. We long for soulful workplaces, for authenticity, community, passion, and purpose.

In this groundbreaking book, the author shows that every time, in the past, when humanity has shifted to a new stage of consciousness, it has achieved extraordinary breakthroughs in collaboration. A new shift in consciousness is currently underway. Could it help us invent a more soulful and purposeful way to run our businesses and nonprofits, schools and hospitals?

A few pioneers have already cracked the code and they show us, in practical detail, how it can be done. Leaders, founders, coaches, and consultants will find this work a joyful handbook, full of insights, examples, and inspiring stories.

ADVANCE PRAISE

"Congratulations on a spectacular treatise! This is truly pioneering work. In terms of integral sophistication, there is simply nothing like it out there."
--Ken Wilber, from the Foreword

"The most exciting book I've read in years on organization design and leadership models."
--Jenny Wade, Ph.D., Author of Changes of Mind

"A book like Reinventing Organizations only comes along once in a decade. Sweeping and brilliant in scope, it is the Good To Great for a more enlightened age.
What it reveals about the organizational model of the future is exhilarating and deeply hopeful."
--Norman Wolfe, Author of The Living Organization

"A comprehensive, highly practical account of the emergent worldview in business. Everything you need to know about building a new paradigm organization!"
--Richard Barrett, Chairman and Founder, Barrett Values Center

"Frederic Laloux has done business people and professionals everywhere a signal service. He has discovered a better future for organizations by describing, in useful detail, the unusual best practices of today."
--Bill Torbert, Author of Action Inquiry

"As the rate of change escalates exponentially, the old ways of organizing and educating, which were designed for efficiency and repetition, are dying. Frederic Laloux is one of the few management leaders exploring what comes next. It's deeply different."
--Bill Drayton, Founder, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Congratulations on a spectacular treatise! This is truly pioneering work. In terms of integral sophistication, there is simply nothing like it out there."
--Ken Wilber, from the Foreword

"The most exciting book I've read in years on organization design and leadership models."
--Jenny Wade, Ph.D., Author of Changes of Mind

"A book like Reinventing Organizations only comes along once in a decade. Sweeping and brilliant in scope, it is the Good To Great for a more enlightened age.
What it reveals about the organizational model of the future is exhilarating and deeply hopeful."
--Norman Wolfe, Author of The Living Organization

"A comprehensive, highly practical account of the emergent worldview in business. Everything you need to know about building a new paradigm organization!"
--Richard Barrett, Chairman and Founder, Barrett Values Center

"Frederic Laloux has done business people and professionals everywhere a signal service. He has discovered a better future for organizations by describing, in useful detail, the unusual best practices of today."
--Bill Torbert, Author of Action Inquiry

"As the rate of change escalates exponentially, the old ways of organizing and educating, which were designed for efficiency and repetition, are dying. Frederic Laloux is one of the few management leaders exploring what comes next. It's deeply different."
--Bill Drayton, Founder, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public --Advance praise

About the Author

Frederic Laloux works as an adviser, coach, and facilitator for corporate leaders who feel called to explore fundamentally new ways of organizing. A former Associate Partner with McKinsey & Company, he holds an MBA from INSEAD and a degree in coaching from Newfield Network in Boulder, Colorado.

His groundbreaking research in the field of emerging organizational models has been described as groundbreaking, brilliant, spectacular, impressive, and world-changing by some of the most respected scholars in the field of human development. Frederic Laloux lives in Brussels, Belgium, with his wife, Hélène, and their two children.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00ICS9VI4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nelson Parker (February 9, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 9, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6768 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 542 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #83,335 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #12 in Organizational Learning
- #54 in Business Management (Kindle Store)
- #75 in Business & Organizational Learning

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Frédéric Laloux

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Frederic Laloux works as an adviser, coach, and facilitator for corporate leaders who feel called to explore fundamentally new ways of organizing. A former Associate Partner with McKinsey & Company, he holds an MBA from INSEAD and a degree in coaching from Newfield Network in Boulder, Colorado.

His groundbreaking research in the field of emerging organizational models has been described as groundbreaking, brilliant, spectacular, impressive, and world-changing by some of the most respected scholars in the field of human development. Frederic Laloux lives in Brussels, Belgium, with his wife, Hélène, and their two children.

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John B. Montgomery

The Good to Great of the Decade.

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2015

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This is a very useful book for anyone interested in learning how the global shift in consciousness to one human family sharing a unique and fragile planet is now showing up in the business world in organizations. I've shared this book with a dozen people and found it to be an excellent conversation starter and framework for discussions about the future of leadership and organizational development.

Mr. LaLoux's premise is that we are on the cusp of a new “Teal” consciousness, which in business is manifested by what he calls self organizing organizations. Twelve of such organizations are profiled in the book. The author does a great job, as Jim Collins did in Good to Great, picking apart these organizations to find common patterns, practices and characteristics. Such organizations (i) empower individuals (self management), (ii) create a safe environment which encourages people to show up fully at work (wholeness) and (iii) have an evolutionary purpose that transcends and includes just making money. Such organizations require a “Teal” leader and a supportive board, in the case of corporations. LaLoux is a good story teller and weaves compelling stories from these organizations throughout the book.

The author does a great job framing his thesis in the context of developmental theory and shows how the collective consciousness of humanity has evolved through the ages. Chapter 1.1 is a very comprehensible summary of the history of the advancement of human consciousness and is particularly skilled in presenting the basic developmental framework of integral theory and spiral dynamics. It is an excellent introduction to a complex field.

For a quick overview, there are excellent tables at the ends of Chapter 2.3 (Self Management), Chapter 2.5 (Striving for Wholeness) and Chapter 2.6 (Listening to Evolutionary Purpose) which summarize the key differences between the prevailing "Orange" organization and "Teal" ones.

The author articulates clearly the two key roles of a "Teal" leader –“holding the space” and “role modeling behaviors”. “Holding the space” ensures that the workplace remains a safe place where everyone is safe to show up fully as who they are and are becoming. The author encourages leaders to manage their moods but it is the leader’s level of consciousness, not the mood, that sets the field of consciousness within the space that is being held. The shift from a fear based consciousness to a love based consciousness in a leader has a profound effect on the field of consciousness within LaLoux’s space. In love based environments, the basic neuroscience shows that we are twice as happy, twice as productive and have job tenures that are twice as long as in fear based workplaces. And our brains stay centered out of the limbic system and produce more positive neurotransmitters – oxytocin for bonding and dopamine for feeling good. And we can access collective flow states.

While the author recognizes that a "Teal" organization requires a "Teal" leader and a supportive board he doesn’t provide much guidance as to how one becomes a "Teal" leader. This may cause many to emulate the many wonderful "Teal" practices described in the book without having the skills or capacity to "hold the space" or "role model behaviors". How does one acquire the "integrated worldview and psychological development consistent with the Teal developmental level?"

Becoming a "Teal" leader is a particular challenge because the shift from “Orange” and the next stage, “Green” to “Teal” involves a shift in the center of gravity of consciousness from the head to the heart and a shift in the seat of consciousness from the mind into the body/soma. This is a shift from fear and greed to love and trust, from power over to power with and from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. In short, the operating system of the leader shifts from fear to love, from power over to power with, from scarcity to the abundance of infinite possibilities. What the author doesn’t say is that, all of the practices, patterns and characteristics of "Teal" organizations flow from the love based state of being of the founder or leader. When love is the operating system, all of these practices and patterns naturally flow from the body's natural intelligence which transcends and includes the mind.

In the Buddhist tradition, the hardest journey is the distance from a person’s head to his heart. When consciousness becomes centered in the heart and seated in the body, there is a union of wisdom and compassion which enables a person to access the wisdom of the whole body. When our consciousness stabilizes in the fore brain where it largely transcends the limbic system/fight or flight, we reside in about three heaping tablespoons of brain matter. In some shamanic lineages, this is known as the 2%. The trick is to drop the center of gravity of consciousness from the frontal cortex into the heart, no small feat, to access the other 98% of our innate intelligence. Abiding in the heart is what allows a person to simultaneously access intuition, logic and emotion and as LaLoux puts it, to “sense and respond” to reality. Reinventing Organizations begs the question of how to get there and perfectly sets up the logical sequel: Reinventing Leadership.

There is only a short section about emerging corporate forms that are capable of holding "Teal" consciousness. There is a short section about benefit corporations and the author, like many, conflates them with Certified B Corporations, which is the designation given a business that passes B Lab’s social and environmental impact assessment tool. The book under emphasizes the environmental and social impacts of the featured businesses and their values.

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Thiago

An insightful and revolutionary eye-opening book about organizations and the future of management.

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2018

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Reinventing Organizations Book Report
Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux is a book about how organizations and management have evolved since the beginning of time and what is in store for the future. Laloux postulates that, since 150,000 B.C., human organizational evolution has created 7 different types of organizations, each one more complex than the last. The seven types of organizations, color coded for easier understanding, are:
1. 150,000 B.C. – 50,000 B.C. Infra-red – Reactive (little or no understanding of the world)
2. 15,000 – 10,000 B.C. Magic – Magenta (sees the mysteries of the world through Magic and Spiritualism)
3. 10,000 B.C. – Impulsive – Red “sees the world through a crude lens of power. Power is exercised constantly by ‘Chiefs’ to keep foot soldiers in line. Fear and unpredictability hold the organization together. Highly reactive with a short-term focus, well-suited to thrive in chaotic environments. Wolf packs are a good metaphor for Red organizations.” ex: street gangs and mafias, ancient tribes.
4. 4,000 B.C. – Conformist Amber (organizations are akin to armies: rule abiding bureaucratic institutions) “The Amber stage of consciousness enabled humankind to develop organizations that could operate on an unprecedented scale. This led to the formation of bureaucratic institutions, and nation states, many of which have survived for centuries. Amber organizations strive for stability and are characterized by clear roles and ranks within a hierarchical structure. Leadership is exercised through command and control and compliance is expected throughout the organization.”. ex: armies, catholic church, public schools, government institutions.
Breakthroughs of Amber
1. Long Term Perspective (stable processes)
2. Size and Stability (formal hierarchies)
5. 1750s A.D. – Achievement Orange (Organizations are akin to machines: large corporate organizations, meritocracy, shareholder focused) “Orange organizations represent the advance of the scientific and industrial revolutions. The world is seen as a complex machine whose inner workings and natural laws can be investigated and understood. This view has brought unprecedented levels of prosperity and life expectancy. Current management thinking, which is focused on competition, innovation and performance. shape how Orange organizations operate.” ex: modern-day corporations, multi-national corporations.
Breakthroughs of Orange
1. Innovation
2. Accountability
3. Meritocracy
6. 1950s A.D. – Pluralistic Green (Organizations are families, with extreme egalitarianism, striving for harmony, tolerance, and equality) “Green organizations reflect the Green stage of consciousness, which strives for harmony, tolerance and equality. While retaining a pyramidal structure, Green organizations focus on empowerment to lift motivation. They go beyond the shareholder focus of Orange to embrace all stakeholders. Family is the dominant metaphor.” ex: hippy commune
Breakthroughs of Green
1. Empowerment
2. Values-driven culture and inspirational purpose
3. Multiple stakeholder perspective
7. Now Evolutionary Teal “Refers to the next stage in the evolution of human consciousness. Teal organizations are characterized by self-organization and self-management. The hierarchical "predict and control" pyramid is replaced with a decentralized structure consisting of small teams that take responsibility for their own governance. Assigned positions and job descriptions are replaced with a multiplicity of roles, often self-selected and fluid. People’s actions are guided by ‘listening’ to the organization’s purpose. Structure in Teal is characterized by rapid change and adaptation.”
Breakthroughs of Teal
1. Self-management
2. Wholeness - invite us to reclaim our inner wholeness and bring all of who we are to work.
3. Evolutionary Purpose - members of the organization are invited to listen in and understand what the organization wants to become, what purpose it wants to serve.
Although these systems above evolved over time, Laloux states that they RED, AMBER, ORANGE, GREEN, and now TEAL organizations all exist throughout society, represented in different institutions. Furthermore, some organizations exhibit combinations of the different types, although all organizations have a dominant type.
Research for the book was done by extensively examining 12 different existent teal organizations that organically emerged and predate the book. The 12 organizations range from car parts factory in France, a leading pasta sauce plant in California, a Swedish State funded at-home nationwide nursing company, a software developer, and a multinational power generation company with over 40,000 employees. From the various examples, Laloux shows how this new teal organizational paradigm allowed the companies to achieve tremendous and quick success in their respective domains, which he uses to advocate the philosophy.
The tone of the book is one of optimistic philosophizing, in which all the claims made are, according to the forward, “solidly grounded in evolutionary and developmental theory.” I personally found references to scientific studies somewhat lacking, but the book addresses the issue by stating that new paradigm is cutting-edge. Most of the chapters of the book are so optimistic and so often fail to acknowledge counter arguments, that I began to draw many of my own. Of the many questions, two major ones were thankfully addressed. The first was: Is teal expected to ultimately replace most other forms of management, to which the text answered: “No, many forms of management exist and will continue to exist in society at the same time.” My second question was: “would the system of trust and a teal worker’s freedom to spend a company’s money without prior approval of any managers break down either by dishonesty or in times of crisis?” The text’s answer to the first part was: “the Teal system only works if the wages provided meet the basic cost of living needs for all of their employees,” (which I took to infer that teal organization isn’t universal applicable, for example it wouldn’t work at a low paying place like McDonalds). In questioning the efficacy of teal in times of crisis, chapter 2.3 (processes) addresses it, but barely so. The question of how employees, who can hire and fire themselves, may behave when their company is on the verge of bankruptcy is acknowledged as an untested scenario, in the text.
The format of the book itself is broken down into three major sections: Part one is an historical and developmental perspective of organizations; part two defines: the structures, practices, and cultures of Teal Organizations; and part 3 is about the Emergence of teal organizations: necessary conditions, how to start a teal organization, transform a current one, and implications of a teal society.
Overall, the book does provide several insights that I believe truly are revolutionary. First, the system of labeling the different organizational structures in history into memorable color coding, gives us a vocabulary to discuss and a mental way to compartmentalize common existent organizational systems around the world. Secondly, the 12 teal organizations, which are discussed at length, are remarkable in the fact that they can not only function properly, but also thrive with their bottom up management with lack of traditional hierarchies.
In review, the book was chock full of insightful statements about the issues inherent in modern success-oriented corporations of today, provided an eye-opening perspective on a new way to see decentralized, self-managed business models were managers don’t even exist. I would recommend this text for anyone who may be interested in either partially changing their business or overhauling it with the revolutionary teal model, which may improve performance and employee satisfaction. Although the teal isn’t for every business or for everyone’s taste, the depth of insight gained from this book makes it worth the read.
Useful chapters to take a quick look at are: 1.2, 1.3, 2.2, 2.3, 3.2, and 3.3

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Amazon Customer

O livro que pode mudar o mundo através da mudança das empresas.

Reviewed in Brazil on October 4, 2021

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O melhor jeito de mudar o mundo é mudando que tem o poder econômico pra mudar as pessoas. Eficiência não precisa ser com exploração das pessoas. O livro mais incrível que já li e que todo empresário deveria ler. Referência para criar os valores e cultura de sua empresa.

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Amit Sood

A compelling read!

Reviewed in India on September 2, 2022

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Frederic Laloux in this book proposes that the evolution and growth of the human consciousness have made the current structure of our organisations obsolete.

He explores how some pathbreaking organisations are experimenting with new work practices, flatter structures and cultures, that set the ground to invite a fuller and perhaps happier expression of self' at the workplace. That has also helped the teams be more future-ready, as they learn to sense and respond to changes more fluidly and connect to clients more deeply. He calls them Teal Organisations.

While Traditional organisations subtly invite their employees, to leave their sensitivities behind when they came to work. People go to work today wearing a mask, that reveals only a part of themselves. The part they show is the tough, logical and effective side. They cover up their vulnerable, kinder and intuitive side. It seems risky to let the sensitivities of our heart and spirituality show up, lest they’d appear too weak. If they do not seem to be smartly driving results they risk losing their place on the table.

It is cliché to say that the organisation that we created for the purpose of serving ourselves, or others like us, have turned into machines. And we have become the raw materials - the human ‘resource’. Everyone from the top to the bottom are devoted, to growing the organisations, their profits and revenues.
But now Authenticity is increasingly in the discussion. There seems to be a growing desire to be more authentic, reflective, holistic and even heart-centred, in our way of being. To let the whole of the self-hood shine through.

Laloux writes that with the rising of human consciousness, our ways of organising and collaboration transform too. Perhaps a shift in the way our organisations are shaped is now due. Why should our time working, a significant part of our lives, be a less than joyful experience?

In the present organisations, the hierarchical structure shifts critical decision-making upwards. It is no wonder, that the life of those at the top gets more and more busy, hurried and stressful.

Yet, today’s society is more pluralistic and complex and, survives with more contradictions than ever before. The distribution of information is far more equitable and speedier. Could it be that the hierarchical structure is due for some reworking? Laloux shares his research in detail, on organisations that have thrived with a new kind of structure - that has no boss!

I find the work compelling. The book comes in two versions the main big book version and a faster-to-read illustrated version, I would strongly recommend them both.

RICHARD GILBY

Brilliant!

Reviewed in Mexico on January 27, 2020

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Skip the pretentious foreword and get straight into reading the best book on organisations you will ever read. Clear examples and case studies and yet not a 'how to' book. Lots to think about and makes us all wish we worked for these kinds of organisations.

Jose F. Caballero Nieto

Una completa visión de los tipos de organizaciones, buenas prácticas teal y como llevar a las organizaciones al estado teal

Reviewed in Spain on November 2, 2016

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Altamente recomendable para todos aquellos que piensen que las organizaciones requieren una transformación o una re invención.

El libro se remite a numerosas fuentes tanto de autores relevantes en esta materia como de empresas teal exitosas. Un excelente compendio que he disfrutado leyendo y reflexionando acerca de ello.

Esencial frente a los retos de las organizaciones, y del mundo en general, en las próximas décadas.

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R Walt

A sneak peek at the future organizations

Reviewed in Canada on November 29, 2015

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Reinventing organizations is one of those "this makes so much sense" books. The highlights for me are: looking at employees as whole humans who bring their lives to work, rather than a mask; investing heavily in conflict management (to enable and channel conflict rather than hide from it) and letting organizational projects and initiatives grow or die by the energy and interest of staff rather than top-down authority. This is an enlightened thinking about the human condition and our current trajectory - I see this trend emerging in different ways at different levels: interest in yoga, meditation, work-life balance, search for meaning outside of money and products, low levels of engagement, and most imporantly the sense that we have lost our communities. In answer to these, this is very positive as a path forward. There are many organizations featured in this book and the author does a good job describing the "in the field" manifestations of this philosophy. As an academic study it would be interesting to track these organizations and see how they fare over the medium to long term. One never knows which management philosophies are fads or at the very least which organizations and industries will prosper more than others using these practices. Regardless, there is so much commonsense in here that it just can't be denied and at the very least some aspects of this will apply universally to organizations. However, I would say this book and the ideas in it are about 5-10 years ahead of mainstream adoption. Thus, this is hopefully a sneak peek at the future of organizations.

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