Leadermorphosis

Marin Petrov and Christian Haniszewski have worked at some of the most creative companies in the world but wanted to create their own company with freedom at its core. Thus, Hack and Paint was born. I talked to Marin, Christian and three of their teammates, Martina Petkov, Miglena Chervenkova, and Stefan Doychev, about the challenges of working in a self-managing team, especially when no one is based in the same country. In particular, we talk about the importance of personal development, being human, and their experiences of Holacracy practices. How to follow Hack and Paint: Twitter: @hackandpaint More resources: An Everyone Culture (the book Marin references) The Self-Management Hype: Aren’t We Just Reinventing the Wheel? (the post by the Corporate Rebels I mention) Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock

Doug Kirkpatrick, co-founder of The Self-Management Institute, original team member of Morning Star and author of “Beyond Empowerment”, shares his insights about common misconceptions of self-management, what it really takes to have self-management work, and the example of Haier (the largest appliance manufacturer in the world) in China which is organised into 4,000 self-managing teams. How to follow Doug: Twitter: @Redshifter3 More resources: Doug’s book “Beyond Empowerment: The Age of the Self-Managed Organization” The 12 Keys to the Workplace of the Future (Huffington post blog) ”Haier Elevation” – Doug’s blog about Haier for The Huffington Post Book: “Freedom and Accountability” by Peter Koestenbaum and Peter Block Book: “Conversations for Action and Collected Essays” by Fernando Flores

Ed Gonsalves has spent more than two decades studying the concept of play and specialises in designing senior executive programmes for high performance teams in entrepreneurial and large organisations. Is it possible to discover new paradigms of working and leading by incorporate unstructured play into our learning experiences? What do carnaval, prisons and nature have to do with self-managing teams? Ed, an associate professor at Toulouse Business School, Barcelona and the co-founder of The Cooplexity Institute, shares what he has learnt. How to follow Ed: On Twitter: @EddyGonsalves More resources: 'The Land' (Erin Davis, 2015) – a short documentary film about the nature of play, risk and hazard set in a "adventure” playground in North Wales Contact us for further resources and references about play and organisational learning (Ed being an academic, he has plenty!)

Karin has been experimenting with employee-driven organisations and self-managing teams since the nineties. She shares the approach she’s developed which involves “giving all of the authority away” and then coaching people in a higher level of communication skills, resulting in radical and rapid transformations. Listen to learn about how she transformed nearly a dozen companies and the successes (and failures) she encountered along the way. How to follow Karin: On Twitter: @ktenelius Website: http://karintenelius.com/

IT infrastructure company Schuberg Philis has over 250 people and no managers. Lotta Croiset van Uchelen, Chief DNA Officer, and Daniela Resch, Wellbeing Researcher, talk about how engineers are organised in self-steering teams. They share examples of practices that are “hygienic”, dynamic systems as well as what the well-being researchers are discovering about current challenges and areas for improvement. How to follow Lotta and Daniela: Check out their culture blogs at https://stories.schubergphilis.com/

Samantha Slade is the cofounder of Percolab, an international community of companies interested in exploring what the future of organisations can be. Based in Montreal, Canada, she is writing a book on the seven practices to help organisations become more horizontal and rewire us for self-management. In this episode, she shares some insights from the book; her journey as the cofounder of a living systems, self-managing organisation; and her thoughts on how it’s possible to reinvent financial models in business, including self-set salaries. How to follow Samantha: Twitter: @Sam5

Helen Sanderson is a leader of several social enterprises specialising in “person-centred care.” She shares her story of stepping back as CEO of her company HSA to create a self-managing team and all the leadership and culture challenges they encountered along the way. Helen also announces a new and exciting project which involves self-managed well-being teams, à la Buurtzorg in the Netherlands, with an ambitious mission to scale from six to 600 in under three years. And beneath all of this is a deeply personal sense of purpose... How to follow Helen: Twitter: @HelenHSAUK Website: helensandersonassociates.co.uk Other resources: Helen’s podcast on SoundCloud  

Paul Taylor, as a ‘Lab Coach’ at social enterprise Bromford, is on a mission to change how organisations perceive failure. Inspired by radical, self-management pioneers like healthcare company Buurtzorg, he shares some of the working-out-loud experiments he’s been running to innovate product and service development and reinvent management. How to follow Paul: Twitter: @PaulBromford Website: https://paulitaylor.com/ Other resources: Bromford’s publicly accessible Trello board Team of Teams website  

Joost Minnaar shares his insights from visiting more than 50 of the most inspiring workplaces around the world. Appalled by the statistic that only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work, Joost co-founded The Corporate Rebels to make work more fun. We talk about The Corporate Rebels Canvas, supportive leadership, why we should be wary of the latest organisational fads, and how to involve employees in running experiments in your company to create an inspiring workplace. How to follow Joost: Twitter: @corp_rebels Website: http://corporate-rebels.com/ Book(s) of the week: Check out The Corporate Rebels’ favourite books here Other resources: Download The Corporate Rebels Canvas Check out the moodforce app Joost mentioned The Jurgen Appelo article we talk about on “the right time for organisational dictatorship”

David is the cofounder of digital marketing company Cyberclick in Barcelona organised around happiness. Far from being a gimmick, though, he has developed ways of measuring happiness and creating a self-managing company where people can find fulfillment at work. We talk about the power of habit, scaleup companies and inspiring Mondays. How to follow David: Twitter: @davidtomas Website: http://www.davidtomas.com/ Book of the week: Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler Relevant links: David’s “Lunes Inspiradores” podcast The Power of Habit website