A Powershifted Operating System to Run Your Business
E-Book, Englisch, 248 Seiten
ISBN: 978-3-347-13170-5
Verlag: tredition
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)
It is based upon three rulesets incorporating the four central principles:
1.Establish purpose as the supreme principle of order
2.Agile and transparent action
3.Differentiating and integrating work and people
4.Powershift and distributed authority.
Weitere Infos & Material
Introduction Around the globe humanity deals with the subject of the future of work. The increasingly complex, ambiguous, uncertain, and volatile environment of our time calls for new courageous answers to how we work, earn, collaborate - and live our lives as a whole. While the prevalent modern company form has brought innovation, accountability and meritocracy to us, “corporate greed, political short-termism, overleverage, overconsumption, and the reckless exploitation of the planet’s resources and ecosystems” are among their poisonous byproducts.1 To counter these effects, humanity needs a new holistic approach adding purpose, connectedness, and a new understanding of power to the way organizations function and people energize their work. This reconnection of organizations and human beings with a greater whole is what is needed for the economic success of our enterprises and the future of our planet. I think, in this crucial moment in time, mankind is called on to radically rethink the premises, structures and rules upon which today’s organizations are built. In this book, I present one possible way forward: The For-Purpose Enterprise. The Origins of the For-Purpose Enterprise With its inception in 2015, the company encode.org has developed and tested a company model that reinvents work – systematically and for purpose: The For-Purpose Enterprise.2 Encode.org’s purpose in 2015 was coined as: "Going beyond employment. Liberating purposeful work". Its current purpose statement evolved and is now: "To connect power, purpose, and work". The For-Purpose Enterprise is purpose-driven, transparent, dynamic, and based on a new understanding of power called distributed authority.3 It reorganizes the three core areas of a company from scratch: • work, • ownership, • and social interactions. The For-Purpose Enterprise is based upon three important rulesets that make up the operating system: • the Holacracy® Constitution4, • the foundational legal documents, and • an Agreement of Association. Figure 1: The Three Rulesets of the For-Purpose Enterprise making up its operating system Together these rules redesign the above-mentioned three areas of a company: work, ownership, and social interactions (chapters 3, 4 and 5). The For-Purpose Enterprise introduces an "ownerless" company, in which the working members and investors put into effect the company's purpose. They are the Purpose Agents of the enterprise and know that fixed personal notions about the “right” business model, the “correct” purpose, and the “best” strategies are more likely to jeopardize the company’s development toward its purpose than fostering it. Purpose Agents regard companies as living systems that have their own creative potential and cannot be owned by anyone. Purpose Agents give birth to this potential without defining or limiting it. With respect to the organization of work, the For-Purpose Enterprise is based on the Holacracy® practice of self-organization. In this book, I describe the Holacracy practice only insofar as it is necessary for the understanding of the other chapters of the book and does not go into too much detail. However, I urge you to further familiarize yourself with the practice if you decide to implement the For-Purpose Enterprise in your organization. This company model is not about incremental improvements to the current modern organizational forms. It is not about “hybrid company models” either in which the old world and the new world are mixed. The For-Purpose Enterprise model presented in this book deliberately distinguishes itself from these ideas. It is a self-contained system whose success depends on bidding farewell to old power structures mirrored in conventional management concepts and ideas, in legal contracts, and in common corporate social interactions. As you will soon learn, the positive effects of the for-purpose operating system will only unfold if applied in its entirety (chapter 2). “We shape our rules and the rules shape us,” Thomas Thomison Box 1: Quote Thomas Thomison The current paradigm shift towards purposeful powershifted corporate governance recognizes value creation as a result of the pursuit of purpose. Daniel Pink, former editor-in-chief of WIRED and speechwriter of the former US Vice President Al Gore, describes this in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us: “The aims of these Motivation 3.0 companies are not to chase profit while trying to stay ethical and law-abiding. Their goal is to pursue purpose—and to use profit as the catalyst rather than the objective.”5 A For-Purpose Enterprise should not be confused with a non-profit company. Clear for-profit enterprises also align themselves with the objective "for purpose". Such a purposeful company pursues its defined (and constantly evolving) purpose (which is distinct from the individual purposes of its members) whilst generating revenues. Reinventing Organizations and Beyond Around the globe, modern entrepreneurs are dealing with the subject of "Reinventing Organizations". In his book by the same name, Frederic Laloux studied the different types of organizations over the last millennia describing their paradigm, using a specific metaphor for each and assigning them a color. He analyzes their breakthroughs and the shadows they brought humanity. Through his work, we can see a pattern of how organizational systems evolve with time – “a developmental trajectory of hope, if you will” (Thomas Thomison, Introduction). Paradigm Achievement Pluralistic Evolutionary Metaphor Machine Family Living System Color Orange Green Teal Breakthroughs Innovation, accountability and the principle of achievement (meritocracy) Empowerment, Values-driven culture and inspirational purpose, multiple stakeholder perspective Selfmanagement, wholeness, evolutionary purpose Box 2: Characteristics of Orange, Green and Teal Organizations (F. Laloux) Most of us have a conceptual idea of the paradigm that prevails today in global corporations, which Laloux describes as the “Achievement Paradigm”. He also referred to them as Orange organizations. The company functions according to the predominant metaphor of a machine, with people as the gears. Important aspects within these companies are competition, tangible achievements, and socially recognized success. People strive to be better than their colleagues, and the primary goal of the company is to grow and increase profits. The advantages are innovation, accountability and the principle of achievement (meritocracy).6 The shadows are profit maximization, greed, overconsumption and lack of purpose and identification with the company. Frederic Laloux then described organizations that act like a family (metaphor) - including the advantages and the dysfunctions of a family. He calls these organizations the Pluralistic – Green organizations. These companies emphasize culture and the power of collaboration, teamwork, and co-creation. The underlying worldview within these companies strongly emphasizes the feelings of the people and that everyone deserves equal. In addition, connectedness and the feeling of belonging are of utmost importance. Its shadows are the dogma of consensus and the power plays behind the scenes (that no one mentions even though they exist). Organizations which have left this stage behind, are what Laloux calls Evolutionary-Teal Organizations. They are currently evolving around the world and get a lot of traction. Their metaphor is that of a living system. Members of such companies regard the company as similar with nature, cells of the human body and the ecosystem, which is constantly changing, without anyone giving orders and making decisions from above and without ownership in its classic meaning.7 Laloux named three breakthroughs that characterize them: self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose.8 The three breakthroughs of evolutionary organizations according to Frederic Laloux (Reinventing Organizations) • Self-management: a system with new hierarchies and distributed authority that replaces traditional management. • Wholeness: all members of the company are invited to bring all sides of themselves into the work and not only the socially accepted ones like strength and determination. In evolutionary companies, it is no longer just the known, externally defined success indicators that count (turnover, profit, effectiveness, or productivity). Instead people use their inner compass to determine what is right. • Evolutionary purpose: companies are living systems that have their own purpose in the world. The task of all members of the company is to recognize and implement this...
