Sublime

In very large organizations, top-level managers and administrators often lack expertise in the work being done, but are able to create circumstances that allow those under them to thrive.

A new metaphor: organizations as living systems

Self-managing organizations naturally provide for exceptional learning opportunities.

Actually, one could argue that every organization’s real structure looks like this: an intricate web of fluid relationships and commitments that people engage in to get their work done. Unfortunately, most organizations force a second structure, the one with boxes piled up in pyramid shape, on top of the first. No wonder it sits there so

It stems from the observation that organizational systems, composed of tasks, formal systems, informal ways of behaving, and individuals, develop over time an interdependent state of balance called homeostasis.

Orange glorifies decisive leadership, while Green insists that leaders should be in service of those they lead.

Like Steven Spear describing the Toyota environment as a community of scientists in The High-Velocity Edge, an organization that only Plans and Does can never really improve.

The way information flows illustrates how assumptions (conscious or unconscious) shape organizational practices.

The second book he bought was Drift into Failure by Sidney Dekker, which he passed out to all his IT infrastructure and operations people. Dekker’s book forces organizational managers to rethink blame and accountability in complex processes. When something goes wrong, it asks, “Should you blame the person? Or is it the system?”2*