Sublime

In this approach, the CEO decides in top-down fashion, with the old powers vested in their role of CEO, to take out an essential lever of power. Take out a key staff function like the planning department, or a layer of management—for example, the first line supervisors. Or, like Zobrist did at FAVI, remove a key management tool, like the punch cloc

Hierarchical organization, he stated, is a means of managing the complexity of an entity.

The need to understand where the sources of power are in an organization and how to use this power in pursuit of a meaningful outcome is essential.

In any organization there is always a managed tension between the need for decentralized autonomous action and the need for centralized direction and coordination. To produce a turnaround of a chain-link system, Marco Tinelli tipped the balance, at least for a while, strongly toward central direction and coordination.

another important source of inspiration is the work of Friedrich Glasl, who, inspired by Steiner’s work, developed a related concept of the U that looks at companies and organizations as three interrelated subsystems (Glasl 1997, 1999).

In doing adaptive work in organizations, you need to create or strengthen the holding environment to provide safety and structure for people to surface and discuss the particular values, perspectives, and creative ideas they have on the challenging situation they all face. As members of a group work through a conflict, things can get nasty.

A traditional organization has high alignment but low autonomy, because managers tell people what to do and how to do it.

Successful organizations have cultures in which evidence-based decision making is the norm rather than the exception.

continuous external adaptation to a rapidly changing environment; corresponding internal integration that will support the success of the external adaptation.