Leadermorphosis

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

Swarnalakshmi Ravi is the former national prime minister of India's Inclusive Neighbourhood Children's Parliament. The children's parliament movement is an example of how simple but effective governance principles and structures can make children's voices heard and empower them to take collective action on issues that affect their lives. Swarna shares her experiences both as a child participating in these parliaments and now as an adult supporting the development of the Provisional World Children's Parliament. What can we learn from this movement about inclusion, accessibility and collaboration?

Resources:

• The documentary 'Power to the Children': https://www.powertothechildren-film.com/
• The book 'Hello, Neighbourocracy!': https://leanpub.com/helloneighbourocracy
• See also Sociocracy for All's websites for more resources related to neighbourhood and children's parliaments: https://www.sociocracyforall.org/

Marwa Farouq leads the Global Operations Circle in Teach for All, which is a global network of partner organisations developing collective leadership to improve education and expand opportunity for all children. Marwa shares what she's learned from exploring new ways of working at Teach for All, including dismantling the senior leadership team, moving decisions closer to the work, embracing tensions and liberating untapped leadership through their core value of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Marwa is originally from Egypt and over her almost 20-year career she has led organisational development, culture transformation, and change management initiatives as well as being a seasoned executive coach and Nonviolent Communication practitioner.

Resources:

• Teach for All's website https://teachforall.org/
• A video where two Teach for All network leaders share 'The Leadership Mindset Shifts That Have Enabled Progress in Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion' https://teachforall.org/news/leadership-mindset-shifts-have-enabled-progress-diversity-equity-inclusion
• About Frederic Laloux's book, Reinventing Organizations https://www.reinventingorganizations.com/
• About Nonviolent Communication https://www.cnvc.org/

Ravi Resck was born to hippy parents in Brazil, became a computer network engineer, and then travelled the world as a guitarist, discovering a love of facilitation and social design. Today he goes by tags like hacktivist, org designer, facilitator, and systems mapper, sharing social technologies with others in a fun and accessible way. He works as a consultant at Target Teal, a collective exploring new ways of working, including an open-source fork of Holacracy called Organic Organization (or O2). We talk about why he believes lessons from self-management and Sociocratic-inspired models benefit all organisations, not just the 'already-converted', and Ravi shares some of his favourite examples of organisations and communities at the cutting edge of new ways of collaborating. Ravi is definitely one to watch in the future of work space!

Resources:

• Target Teal's website https://targetteal.com/en/
• Learn more about Organic Organization https://targetteal.com/en/organic-organization/
• Sociocracy for All's page about Sociocracy with Youth, including the Children's Parliament movement https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy-with-youth/
• H3Uni's website https://www.h3uni.org/

Jos de Blok is the founder of Buurtzorg, a home care organisation in the Netherlands with 15,000 nurses and no managers. We talk about how their decentralised, human approach has helped them during the pandemic, why he believes 'protocolising things' in organisations does damage, and his advice for leaders and traditional top-down organisations that are embarking on transformation processes. It was an honour to talk to one of my heroes and to hear him speak with such heart. Enjoy!

Resources:

• My interview with the Buurtzorg nurses from the Houten team: https://leadermorphosis.co/ep-26-buurtzorg-and-the-power-of-self-managed-teams-of-nurses
• More about the book 'Organizational Innovation by Integrating Simplification: Learning from Buurtzorg Nederland' https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-11725-6

Michael Bungay Stanier is on a mission to 'un-weird coaching' and make it a skill set available to anyone. His books have sold over a million copies and Michael has taught more than 200,000 people. As a big fan of his writing, I wanted to talk to him about why being more 'coach-like' is so valuable – both for us and for the people we work with – and how to get better at it.

We also discussed what Michael's learned from handing over the role of CEO at the company he founded, his new book 'How to Begin', and why he's interested in exploring the power of giving away power...

Resources:

• Michael's website https://www.mbs.works/
• Michael's new book, 'How to Begin: A Proven Plan to Start Something That Matters' https://www.mbs.works/how-to-begin/
• Michael's podcast 'Two Pages with MBS' https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/
• The book Michael mentions: 'The Power of Giving Away Power' by Matthew Barzun

The current models for how we measure things in organisations tend to produce compliance at their best, and dysfunctions at their worst. Andy Brogan has developed an alternative tool called Confirmation Practices that he hopes could one day completely shift how we see regulation, accreditation and accountability in general. Joined by Helen Sanderson, we discuss examples of where Confirmation Practices have made a difference (such as in a pathology service) and why this tool helps 'put the elephant in the room'. It's all about going from scorekeeping to sense making.

Andy Brogan is the founding partner of Easier Inc, providing consultancy services to a range of clients and sectors and is particularly passionate about the future of public services. Before that he worked in healthcare as a senior manager in the NHS (National Health Service) in the UK.

Helen Sanderson has been on the podcast before and is the founder of Wellbeing Teams, the first self-managed teams in social care to be inspected by the Care Quality Commission (receiving an Outstanding rating in their first inspection in 2019). After three years of being a provider, she and her colleagues now provide support to other organisations who want to use the principles and practices of Wellbeing Teams.

Resources:

• Andy's websites: www.easierinc.com and www.nextstageradicals.net
• Helen's website: www.helensandersonassociates.co.uk
• The Wellbeing Teams website: www.wellbeingteams.org

On Twitter:

• Andy https://twitter.com/AndyTBrogan
• Helen https://twitter.com/HelenWBTeam