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Whether or not we’re aware, we are all guided by values and principles, both individually and corporately. They influence every decision we make, how we respond to different situations, the behaviours we value and reward, and those we shun.
Reducing company values to platitudes on posters risks not only the dilution of those values, but also misalignment as that vacuum is filled by whatever is deemed expedient in the moment. For our company values to have any value, they need to be embedded in our company’s systems, structures, decisions, and processes, guiding and informing everything we do together.
Creating a culture that enables people to perform their best and have fun doing it isn’t restricted to the realm of fantasy. From the greatest teams in history to the humble service desk, high-performing cultures start with an environment of trust, treating each other as humans first and connecting with a shared purpose that inspires and motivates people in the same direction.
Instead of trying to motivate or manipulate people to bend to the will of the business, we can start by treating people with dignity and respect, then create environments that enable them to deliver high quality work. It requires a focus on learning, designing, and cultivating the conditions for people to thrive and then letting them do so.
Rather than letting ineffective systems, processes, and practices get in the way of people performing their best, we need operating systems that are as capable as the people they are designed for.
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💡Here’s another example of a set of practical principles from the book Humanocracy by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini. Try out their Bureaucratic Mass Index (BMI) survey to see where your org stacks up on the bureaucracy scale.
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Novel problems are not solved using old paradigms. Quantum mechanics were not discovered through the old principles of Newtonian physics, but through challenging paradigms and assumptions to discover a deeper understanding of our world.
The principles of a human-centered organisation break the belief that thinkers should be separated from doers, and instead aspire to cultivate a culture where the businesses' beliefs, values, systems, and processes are intentionally designed to bring out the best in people.
Read more about the principles of Humanocracy as described in the book: https://www.humanocracy.com/
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When we have ownership of an asset or outcome, we have the intrinsic motivation to go beyond the minimum to amplify its value, as we stand to reap the rewards of any improvements.
Although not everyone can be a business owner, we can build companies where every team member has the autonomy and financial upside that allows them to have a stake in the company’s success. This is key to unlocking the creative and entrepreneurial energy lying dormant in many organisations.
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In a free and open market economy, consumers and traders have a lot of choices and are more effective at aligning needs and resources than centrally planned economies. Our organisations are no different.
The central planning approach often leaves little room for true innovation as autonomy, creativity, and ownership are starved in all but a few corners of the company as big decisions are made behind closed doors by a small subset of the company’s collective brainpower.
We need organisations that utilize the distributed intelligence and adaptability that open market economies offer.
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While we love the acceptance and resilience of a community, we also need an environment that cultivates curiosity, learning, and candor. We want environments that are receptive to new ideas, to be free to learn, grow, and invent.
Openness requires us to be transparent with information instead of hoarding it, sharing data, knowledge, and insights across the company to cultivate trust and enable everyone at all levels to make well-informed decisions.
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We need companies where excellence is rewarded, not kissing ass or playing political games to increase our influence and status. We need companies where influence and compensation are correlated with competence and impact.
In an open market of ideas, the best and most influential will rise to the top, so long as they create meaningful value for their followers. When someone we follow is no longer contributing valuable content, we’re free to unfollow. Imagine, for a moment, if leadership positions fluctuated based on feedback from their followers, free from the fixed formality that keeps many ineffective leaders in their positions for too long.
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We all crave genuine community and the emotional strength and resilience that comes from being known and accepted for who we are. We need to foster deep, trust-based relationships to build psychological safety and bring out the very best in people.
A community needs:
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There's something deeply satisfying to coming up with a new idea, testing it, perfecting it, prototyping it, and putting it to work. It's also how organisations can continually re-invent themselves and outperform the incumbents.
Experimentation is about turning the entire org into a laboratory, where new ideas are experimented with to discover what ideas will enable better performance, and which won't.
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The principles of democracy are of little use unless they're embedded into legislation, policies, and practices. Putting the principles of Humanocracy into practice involves a deep dive into the bowels of bureaucracy to inspect and re-imagine core structures, policies, and processes across the business.
The management model encompasses the processes, structures, and roles, that determine how work gets done, and how effectively an organisation uses its resources, satisfies its customers and stakeholders, and secures its future.
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Setting direction
Developing plans
Defining goals
Allocating recourses
Coordinating activities
Optimizing workflows
Creating new products and services
Acquiring and building talent
Assessing performance
Distributing rewards
Mitigating risk
Improving operations