Eugenio Moliní: Self-organisation, redundancy, self-management and dispelling myths of leadership
Eugenio Moliní is an experienced change management consultant who has worked in 100s of organisations across Europe for the past several decades. This conversation criss-cross the boarder of self organisation and self management and is a use ful guide into task based management from a person who has dedicated his life to liberating people to do the best work possible in the work context.
We explore many different aspects of less violent work. Like why the image of the organisation as an entity driving towards a peak is misleading and perhaps its more like pushing towards a horizon. We explore when we became addicted to goals and strategy as ends vs markers for that we are on the path. When did redundant become an excuse for getting rid of people? Why is it really that self-organisation is inevitable? What should we think of when thinking about self management? And a lot more.
An extract by Amit
Towards the end of our conversation we explored some principles to incorporate when designing work that allows people to self-manage and follow their passion:
Promote interconnectedness - in channels or between channels.
Life is fundamentally inter connected. Diversity and inter connectedness are crucial aspects of life. It does not mean maximise interconnectedness since that will just ‘create an amoeba that will die of heat-death’ as Eugnio puts it so clearly. Rather optimise for the communication that will serve the information needed in the different parts of the organisation through interconnected communication channels within and between parts.
Bring the future to the now.
To achieve any goal is to move towards a horizon. Change means a new state that we are not in at this particular time. People in general do not like change, nor are open to doing things differently. It is hard to do things differently. So, how do we offer change? By offering the people that cannot imagine the new way of working, an experience of what it would be working in that new way. That is the fundamental behind bringing the future to the now.
Do you thing and get out of the way.
Do your thing and get out of the way. Don’t try to control the effects of your actions, that’s impossible. Instead. Do what you believe you need to do and then stay connected to the organisation. Stay connected, especially if you are delivering difficult messages to people. Other than that you keep faith in the process as well as your values and principles and keep looking towards that horizon you are steering towards.
And some other nuggets that I picked up on the way:
Remember that if your management systems appraises you (or anyone) by other peoples work this leads to people having to controlling people. Any such system will kill self-management. Not self organisation as defined in this conversation but self-management. If anything self-organisation will just find different routes.
Two simple rules of thumb:
For teams of more than (ca) 5 people: you need to put a manager.
The moment a company becomes ca 150 people they need to develop management systems that take more resources than the people that are producing, that are doing the real work. That is when management becomes a goal in itself. If you want people to self-manage then you need to make other decisions.
And there was much, much more in this conversation. So I strongly recommend that you listen to the whole thing.