Collaborative organisations - not just more, but different...

If you’re going to lead better meetings, I need to shake the foundations under your feet.

Here goes.

Though there are MANY expressions of how organisations are run, there are essentially two philosophies:

1️⃣

Steering from the top.

Execution is done at the bottom.

Parent-child dynamic.

Also known as command and control, hierarchical, closed.

This works in simple markets with highly commoditised products.

There are plenty of benevolent companies where nice people steer from the top.

It’s how organisations were built in the industrial era. Which was itself a massive improvement on what came before.

2️⃣

Teams are trusted to steer towards shared vision.

Assume people are motivated and capable and that we need to make a system that enables them to do great work and collaborate together to make sensible, aligned decisions.

No parents and no children - we are all adults.

This is what’s needed in complex markets.

Sometimes called adaptive organisations, learning organisations, self-organising organisations. BetaCodex is another name.

In FewerFasterBolder, we talk about Collaborative Organisations.

🤔 So what?

If you want to meetings to enable you to steer work from the top - to optimise the people ‘under’ you to do what you say, to execute your strategy…

Then my work is wrong for you.

If you want to support people in taking responsibility for great decisions and progress together...

Then you are in EXACTLY the right place.

In Collaborative Organisations, meetings enable good people to figure out what’s true, where risks ie, risk, to make good trade offs, to get support, to find a shared route forward.

In reality, every organisation is on a journey. And that’s what my work is all about.