Chapter 1: From Profit To Purpose & Values
Pioneering Practices
- Have a bold purpose
- Get the message to everyone
- Hire for culture, train for skills
- Measure impact, track progress, share it widely
- Put your money where your mouth is
Notes
Chapter mostly focused on Patagonia and how they put purpose above profits and how that drives a lot of their business decisions (sustainable materials, donating to non-profits, etc.). Argues that employees are more engaged/driven when working for companies with clear purposes instead of just maximizing profits.
Chapter 2: From Hierarchical Pyramid to Network of Teams
Pioneering Practices
- Inverted pyramid
- Autonomous teams in pyramid
- Flat organization with autonomous teams
- Network of teams
- Ecosystem of mini companies
Notes
- Haier (chinese home appliances/electronics company) organizes their 70,000 employess into 4,000 mini-companies
- Handelsbanken (Netherlands bank) gives complete autonomy to local branches: as far as allowing decisions over which products are offered, how they're marketed or priced
Chapter 3: From Directive to Supportive Leadership
Pioneering Practices
- Beware of HiPPos (highest paid person opinions)
- Destroy the ivory tower
- Evaluate your manager
- Split managers
- Choose your leader
Notes
- "Park your hierarchy at the door" when going into a meeting
- Drop status symbols (corner office, reserved parking space)
Chapter 4: From Plan & Predict to Experiment & Adapt
Pioneering Practices
- Ruthlessly experiment
- Kill the budget cycle
- Create a "safe-to-try" environment
- Crowdsource experiments
- Rebel Time (10% hacking time at Spotify, 20% time at Google)
Notes
- "I let go of the naive belief that the world in which we work can be predicted or that every detail can be planned" - Koldo Saratxaga, K2K
- Some Spotify squads have Fail Walls where they post their failures and learnings.
- "We would rather spend out time and energy on adjusting, and quickly recovering, than on futile attempts to predict the future." - Katarina Berg, Spotify
Chapter 5: From Rules & Control to Freedom & Trust
Pioneering Practices
- Design your own workplace
- Results-based working
- Remove control mechanisms
- Peer Review
- Self-Setting Salaries
Notes
- Many agree that around 3% of the workforce is likely to take advantage of the system. Rules implemented to keep the 3% in line stifle the productivity, autonomy and joy of the other 97%.
- One of the main reasons of burnout is the lack of autonomy and control over your own work.
Chapter 6: From Centralised to Distributed Authority
Pioneering Practices
- Map decision-making
- Change the language
- Push authority down
- Pre-approval
- Advice process
Notes
- Pre-approval: Leader/manager approves something in advance, before employee made actual decision or found solution. Employee has full autonomy as long as decision fits within pre-defined boundaries: time, cost, requirements.
- Advice process:
- Someone tries to solve a problem or make a decision
- They seek advice from people with expertise or experience
- Advice can be accepted or rejected. You have the final say.
- All involved are informed of the decision taken
- Consensus is overrated. It'll slow you down and the solution will end up being a compromise that no one is happy with.
Chapter 7: From Secrecy to Radical Transparency
Pioneering Practices
- Open communication
- Openness as the default
- Transparent performance and goals
- Open-book management
- Salary Transparency
Notes
- All information is public (internally) unless there's a very good reason not to
Chapter 8: From Job Descriptions to Talent & Mastery
Pioneering Practices
- Identify talents
- Job crafting by combining roles
- Unlimited training
- Self-selected mentors
- Internal project marketplace