Leadermorphosis

Buurtzorg is a remarkable organisation: 15,000 employees working in 850 self-managed teams to deliver home care to patients in the Netherlands. The results, including both patient and employee satisfaction, are so outstanding that Buurtzorg-inspired models are popping up all over the world. I got the chance to talk to three nurses from Team Houten, all of whom came from a traditional, large healthcare company, and hear firsthand what it's like to work in such a high-freedom, high-responsibility environment. Listen to this wonderful conversation with three passionate and charismatic women – Marian, Chila and Jolanda – and discover what they've learned over the last nine years about tough conversations, teamwork, and personal development.

Resources:

• Buurtzorg website

Related episodes:

• Leadermorphosis episode 9 featuring Helen Sanderson and the self-managing wellbeing teams she's created in the UK, also inspired by Buurtzorg
• Leadermorphosis episode 25 with Edel Harris who shares how Cornerstone, one of the largest social care companies in Scotland, is piloting self-managing teams

Learn about the remarkable transformation journey CEO Edel Harris has been leading with one of Scotland's largest charities, Cornerstone. It began by taking three months out of the business to visit inspiring companies around the world like Southwest Airlines and Buurtzorg. Two years in, Cornerstone has lost nine layers of management in favour of nurturing self-managing local care and support teams. Austerity has made it painfully tough for the social care sector, but here's a story of how one organisation has reinvented itself and found innovative ways to deliver person-centred care.

How to follow Edel:

• Twitter: @Edelharris

More resources:

• The Cornerstone Website
• Related episodes:
• • Leadermorphosis episode 9 featuring Helen Sanderson and the self-managing wellbeing teams she's created in the UK, also inspired by Buurtzorg
  • Leadermorphosis episode 21 in which Zoe Nicholson shares the transformation journey of another UK-based healthcare company called Here

Researcher and entrepreneur Sarah Houseman shares insights from her PhD research into new governance systems in not for profit organisations. Looking at the lived experiences and practices of four non-hierarchical NGOs, we explore questions like "How we can see our organisations as systems?" and "How can we participate differently and unlearn dominative behaviours that have previously been rewarded in hierarchical organisations?" (The companies featured in her research are: Friends of the Earth Melbourne, Sustainable Economies Law Centre, The Pachamama Alliance and The Enspiral Foundation.)

How to follow Sarah:

• Twitter: @housemansp

More resources:

• Sarah's blog
• Enspiral's website
• Friends of the Earth Melbourne's website
• Sustainable Economies Law Centre's website
• The Pachamama Alliance's website

If you enjoyed this episode, you might enjoy episode 19 with Simon Mont on why changing the structures of our organisations isn't enough.

Gary Hamel is one of the world's leading business thinkers, Professor at London Business School and director of The Management Lab. In this conversation, we talk about how we can bust bureaucracy for good, make our organisations more experimental, and reinvent what it means to be a leader.How to follow Gary:

• Twitter: @profhamel

More resources:

• Gary's website: http://www.garyhamel.com/

Chuck Blakeman is an entrepreneur, author, and speaker passionate about giving people their brains back in organisations. Although we've left the technologies of the industrialist age behind, outdated assumptions and practices are still very much alive in most workplaces today. Chuck shares insights about the origins of management versus leadership, distributed decision-making, and how to unlearn old habits to shift our organisational culture into what he calls the participation age. Listen to learn more about unlocking mission-centred, self-managing organisations.

How to follow Chuck:

• Twitter: @ChuckBlakeman

More resources:

• Chuck's TED talk, The emerging work world in the participation age
• Chuck's books
• David Marquet's book Turn the Ship Around!

Zoe Nicholson shares the role of Chief Executive at healthcare social enterprise Here in the UK and describes her job as tethering the organisation to its purpose. She shares some of the practices they've developed at Here, inspired by sources like Frederic Laloux's "Reinventing Organisations" and mindfulness, as well as some of the challenges of working in a highly regulated and hierarchical sector.

How to follow Zoe:

• Twitter: @zoenicholson4

More resources:

• Here's website http://hereweare.org.uk/
• The Circle Way practice http://www.thecircleway.net/
• Margaret Wheatley's talk about islands of sanity
• Leadermorphosis podcast episode with Helen Sanderson and her Wellbeing Teams

Anabel Montiel, psychologist and People Developer at Mexican IT company Nearsoft, shares how she has helped the company grow to 300+ people without sacrificing its culture and what personal growth and development can look like in a horizontal organisation. She also talks about how feedback is built into the culture at Nearsoft, right from the onboarding process.

How to follow Anabel:

• Twitter: @anabel

More resources:

• Nearsoft website https://nearsoft.com/
• Learn more about WorldBlu http://www.worldblu.com/nearsoft

Simon Mont, founder of Harmonize, talks about his article "Autopsy of a Failed Holacracy" and the debate it provoked. He believes that if we really want to reimagine our organisations, we need to look at individuals, the organisation, and the larger economic system – changing organisational structures alone isn't enough. We talk about nonprofits, leadership, and how we can connect the dots across organisational transformation communities.

How to follow Simon:

• Twitter: @harmonizework

More resources:

• "Autopsy of a Failed Holacracy" https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2018/01/09/autopsy-failed-holacracy-lessons-justice-equity-self-management/
• The Harmonize website: https://www.harmonize.work/
• Incite http://www.incite-national.org/
• Anti Oppression Resource and Training Alliance (AORTA) http://aorta.coop/
• Everyday Liberation https://sandrakim.com/

Edwin van der Geest, former Managing Director and Self-Management Ambassador at IT company Incentro, talks about the transformation he led for several years. He shares practices they've developed, including self-set salaries and Minimum Viable Teams, and the challenges and triumphs they experienced along the way.

Follow Edwin:

• https://twitter.com/edwinvdg

More resources:

• Edwin's new website www.edition.to/en/

Björn Lundén, the founder of Björn Lundén Information in Sweden, is an original rebel. He doesn't believe in rules or bosses or 'secret salaries'. We talk about how his company of 115 employees has been self-managed for over thirty years, his thoughts on the future of work, and why so few interested visitors actually implement this way of working when they return to their own companies.

More resources:

• "A Liar's Voyage", a 60-minute documentary on YouTube about Björn Lundén
• The Björn Lundén website: https://www.blinfo.se/
• The book "Maverick" by Ricardo Semler, the man that inspired Björn back in the late 80s