New Ways of Working #1
Hello š Thanks for taking a peek at my newsletter. To open, Iād like to share itās purpose:
To help you to explore new ways of working.
Thereās a lot of information out there! And Iād like to help you to navigate it.
Intro
Five years ago if you wanted to explore new and progressive ways of working there was an obvious place to turn - Reinventing Organisations by Frederic Laloux. This book sparked a huge conversation about alternatives to traditional methods of managing. Today, happily, there are heaps more books exploring the topic. And blogs, podcasts, videos, tools, events and practices. Even organisations and conferences dedicated to solving the problem of disengagement at work. This is fantastic, and also a little overwhelming, so Iād like to help.
I stumbled across new ways of working in a self-organising law firm and community organisation in Wellington, NZ in 2015. I couldnāt have been more ready for something different, for a better way of working. Since then Iāve been completely hooked and have gone on to be a part of various progressive or self-organising teams. Itās been a huuuuge learning curve and I wouldnāt work any other way. Alongside this practice Iāve been chipping away at the growing mountain of resources out there and bookmarking my favourites along the way. Now Iād like to share these, just a few at a time so as not to overwhelm, every week or two. Hereās why:
Iād love to do for new ways of working what Headspace has done for meditation - to make it more accessible, more mainstream, a little simpler, and a lot less daunting.
If youād like to collaborate on this goal please reach out!
Format
With each short newsletter (this preamble is a one-off) Iāll be linking to one of my favourite videos, one podcast episode, and one article, plus a bonus book, practice, tool or event. So curating existing content. My aim is to be relatively light on academic stuff, theory, buzz words or jargon, and heavy on inspiration, accessibility, and ideas that you can pop in your pocket and try out at work. Here goes:
Blog š
Corporate Rebels are on a mission to make work more fun for everyone by visiting the most inspiring organisations across the world and sharing everything they learn. This article is a great place to start when understanding the need to embrace new ways of working: The Way We Work Is Broken. Here's The Evidence (5 mins).
Podcast š»
Hereās one of my all time faves on the excellent Leadermorphosis podcast: Chuck Blakeman on rehumanising organisations. Chuck is super entertaining as he shares insights about the origins of management versus leadership, distributed decision-making, and how to unlearn old habits to make organisational culture more participatory (55 mins).
Book š
It feels right to start with the book that kicked this all off. I much prefer the shorter illustrated version of Reinventing Organisations. You can even download the book and pay what feels right. If you havenāt yet picked it up or downloaded, itās a great read and an awesome place to start.
Video š„
One of the books thatās inspired and helped me most is Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan. In under an hour Aaron summarises his book in this talk. It is excellent. Watch it, and then watch it again with your colleagues during a lunch and learn that youāve organised (over Zoom works). Set some time aside to discuss your reflections and then āstart by startingā. (45 mins, plus Q&A).
I hope you enjoy!
And finally - full disclosure - below is how I feel about the way that most of our organisations are currently organised š . If you agree then hit subscribe (if you havenāt already) and be sure to share this newsletter with your colleagues and networks.
Until next time, you can find me here.