High trust self-managing organisations

Create a high-trust workplace. One where all of these human needs are part of your everyday culture and operating model. This will unlock your full people potential within your business to tackle the biggest problems and grow what the world needs.

What is people-positive?

To be be our best, do our best work, and be our most productive we all need ‘autonomy, mastery and purpose‘ in our working lives;

Autonomy to make our own decisions and forge our own path.
Mastery in our work and to see a job well done and well received.
Purpose to the work we do every day, for ourselves and for the businesses we work for.

Add to this, we have an evolutionary need to belong, to be social, and to be recognised for our contributions – regardless of age, experience, education, status, job title, and a host of other all to usual barriers to individual contribution being allowed, encouraged, or recognised.

These needs, when met, create an environment where we recognise and celebrate our interdependence to each, society and the planet.

“When organizations are built not on implicit mechanisms of fear, but on structures and practices that breed trust and responsibility, extraordinary and unexpected things start to happen.”

Frederic Laloux

Becoming a people positive business embeds these needs into all aspects of the culture and operational model. Recognising the unique individuality and ‘super power’ of every employee.

Self-managing work and trust

Our direct experience has shown us that one of the best ways to build a high-trust workplace is to transform from a traditional top-down hierarchy to one operating self-managing principles.

Self-managing principles

These are the core areas of mindset change that self-management thrives on;

Active listening, sharing, and learning as colleagues and about our colleagues.

Being open and working with vulnerability.

Total transparency across the organisation, but with context.

Knowledge parity across the business. Only by knowing the whole story can you do your best work.

Never walking away. Having each others backs is the basis for trust and trustworthiness.

Leadership is for everyone. No age, gender, or assumed status or power is a barrier to lead ideas.

Consent is agreed so you can decide and act with autonomy and without prejudice.

We all know this one. Top-down, secrecy (and closed doors), strategy from a few that is done too you and not with you. This is an ‘Organisation as a machine’, where work was linear, narrow and required little flexibility of thought. Centralised control through power, control and fear. A closed value system.

A self-managing, and sustainable, organisation works with free flowing information from all stakeholders – your people, your community, society and nature. This is an ‘Organisation as Nature’, where work has ambiguity, is heuristic*, and works in feedback loops. Distributive control by nature. A shared value system.

These are hard mindsets to move into. If you would like to dig a little deeper we have further reading on our experience of transitioning to, and embedding, self-managing principles and some answers to the questions you might ask before beginning.

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byMatt Tipping/Published03.06.2021/Last edited03.06.2021/inAll Posts, Self-management/tags:high-trust, people positive, self-management, self-organising

High trust self-managing organisations

What is people-positive?

Frederic Laloux

Self-managing work and trust

Self-managing principles

Articles in this series

People-positive organisations

Self-management questions

Self-management change

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All good things

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High trust self-managing organisations

What is people-positive?

Frederic Laloux

Self-managing work and trust

Self-managing principles

Articles in this series

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All good things

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