Leadermorphosis

Three authors of the book 'Made Without Managers: One Company's Journey to New Ways of Working' join me to talk about what they have learned at Mayden, a cloud based health tech solutions organisation in the UK. Ruth Waterfield (developer and scrum master), Taryn Burden (product owner of Mayden's new ways of working) and Philippa Kindon (coach) share how Mayden's ways of working have evolved over the years, including what career progression looks like, the role of directors in a bossless organisation, and what have been their biggest challenges. Resources: Order the book 'Made Without Managers: One Company's Journey to New Ways of Working' from Amazon here Read the blog about the Mayden book here

Erik is an executive advisor on transformation and the future of work, leadership, and collaboration, and the author of 'Teal Dots in an Orange World.' We talk about how this 'new ways of working' movement is evolving, and in particular a positive trend that Erik calls 'fragmented organisations' that's happening because it's hard to scale self-managed or 'teal' practices and principles in a uniform way. Erik shares what he has observed, particularly in larger organisations, including challenges like interfacing with the outside world when you are a progressive organisation. Finally, we explore leadership and 'futures literacy' as an important skill. I love Erik's articulate and thoughtful style and I think this was a great sense-making conversation. Resources: Erik's book, 'Teal Dots in an Orange World' The HBR article 'Managing the whitespace' Bill Anderson talking about transformation at scale at Roche, on the Brave New Work podcast Related Leadermorphosis episodes: The episode with Peter Koenig about Source The episode with Tom Nixon about Source The books Erik mentioned: 'Imaginable' by Jane McGonical 'Transforming the Future: Anticipation in the 21st Century' by Riel Miller et al.

For the past year, the Municipality of Slagelse in Denmark has been experimenting with autonomous teams. Of the 8,000 employees, some 25-30 units so far have opted in to learn how to make decisions as a team using key principles of Sociocracy. Mette Aagaard, Head of Development, shares what they have been learning and why she thinks it is the responsibility of the public sector to develop societies, and workplaces, that are fit for humans. Anyone wondering how to introduce self-managing teams in a large public sector organisation, this episode is for you! Resources: The video of Mette talking to Ted Rau at the Global Sociocracy Conference The Leadermorphosis episode with Ted Rau talking about Sociocracy

Lina shares the story of her time at Finnish commercial real estate company Technopolis where she led the transformation of the Lithuania business unit. Inspired by Frederic Laloux's book Reinventing Organisations, she got the mandate from her boss to run her business unit of 20 people in a totally different way, with no managers. She shares the story of what her team learned, the challenges they faced, and the results they achieved. Highlights include some harsh but valuable feedback from her team about how decisions are made; a group learning to handle their own conflicts; and a chief accountant who went above and beyond to help the team exceed a seemingly impossible sales target. Since recording, Lina has teamed up with other progressive leadership practitioners to help organisations in Lithuania transform to self-managing ways of working. Resources: The Leadermorphosis episode with Dunia and Jabi from K2K Emocionando

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 Exploration of Web3 (YouTube video) Enspiral's website