Category: Books
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Book Review: Freedom to Live
Freedom to Live: The Robert Hartman Story is an autobiography which was originally written for a series of seminars given by Robert Hartman to top executives who wanted to develop more sensitivity to human values. Hartman’s writing and life experiences are very interesting and engaging. He was born in Germany in 1910. Seeing the Nazis…
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Book Review: Sociocracy
Gerard Endenburg has written two major books on sociocracy, Sociocracy: The organization of decision-making and Sociocracy: As social design. There is a considerable overlap between these two books. This is a review of the first book, which is of particular interest since it includes Gerard Endenburg’s own story of sociocracy. The original edition was published…
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Metaphor: An organization as a tree
Daniel Mezick posted my Holacracy book review on Facebook . . . . . . and Michelle Holliday replied with the following metaphor of an organization as a tree. Here’s an excerpt of Michelle’s reply (my emphasis in bold) : … If we think of an organization as a tree, the roots can represent the…
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Book Review: Holacracy
Brian J. Robertson has written a book about Holacracy: The Revolutionary Management System that Abolishes Hierarchy. Holacracy® is a governance system and a registered trademark owned by HolacracyOne. The word Holacracy is very easy to confuse with holocracy (with an o), which means universal democracy. Robertson’s aim with the system is to “harness the tremendous…
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The supreme art of dialogue
Anthony Blake has written a book on The Supreme Art of Dialogue: Structures of Meaning where he explores meaning-making and how to unlock the possibilities of dialogue from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Here is a talk by him on the the same subject at the Art for Business Forum in Milan November 2012. And here is…
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Livsfarlig ledning
“Oberoende av siffrorna så mår företag kanske inte så bra av att göra sig av med sin själ” —Bengt Carlsson & Sophie Nachemson-Ekwall, Livsfarlig ledning, sid 101. Här är nio lärdomar som kan dras av historien om kraschen: Låt inte verkligheten jaga kartan Förvärv blev fördärv Det går inte att ändra för mycket för snabbt…
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A prerequisite for sociocracy is a socios
A prerequisite for sociocracy is that there is a socios, a group of people who share a common purpose and have a social relationship with each other. No socios! No sociocracy! A key question then is how to turn a demos, a general group of people, into a socios? Throughout history, our ancestors have established…
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Pre-conditions for self-organization
The following is a quote from The Power of Spirit: How Organizations Transform by Harrison Owen (p. 42). “The essential preconditions for self-organization, according to [Stuart] Kauffman, are the following: A nutrient-rich, relatively protected environment A high level of diversity and potential complexity in terms of the elements present A drive for improvement Sparse pre-existing…
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Language of rules & policies vs. agreements
The book How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey caught my interest recently. Chapter Six is about moving “From the Language of Rules and Policies to the Language of Public Agreement“. The table below outlines the differences between these languages and is a summary…
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Book Review: The Art of Action
The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results by Stephen Bungay covers a story going back some 200 years. It’s the story of the Prussian Army which, according to the author, “followed precisely the evolution trajectory we are on, but with a head start of about 150 years.” It’s…