Coordinating organizations is hard, which is why we use hierarchical models. However, rejecting traditional hierarchy presents challenges like decision-making and accountability. Innovating on all fronts simultaneously is unlikely to succeed, so my book, Patterns for Decentralized Organizing, offers tools and practices for decentralized organizations to navigate the top 10 challenges they face. These have made a difference for other organizations and are worth trying out.
In this episode we speak with Richard Bartlett, co-founder of the tech cooperative Loomio, and The Hum, management consultancy for organizations without managers. In the conversation, we cover his history and experience with patterns of decentralized organizing picked up from the punk scene and Occupy Wellington in the early 2010s, what he learned from those patterns, and how he co-created new organizational structures that put them into play with his co-founders and fellow workers. This episode will be particularly interesting for listeners who want practical advice on how to organize in DAOs, cooperatives, and other organizational forms that seek to work in non-hierarchical ways, but still get meaningful work done.
Here are the show notes: