“Liberating” management
Laurent Ledoux
22/01/15
This document briefly presents the objectives and principles organically developed in my previous business unit, a sales department in a large bank which I led between 2007 and 2012. Today, I try to implement similar principles in the organization I lead: a 1,250 strong public administration. So far, so good.
The experience of our sales business unit in the bank showed it is possible to implement a management style which Isaac Getz and Ricardo Semler call "liberating" (other talk of participative or emancipatory management – it does not matter). And this is even possible in such a harsh environment as a large bank.
The fact that the "liberation" of a team in such an organization was not fully realizedwas not a problem in itself as longas the team members perceived that the will was there to consistently pursue it as much as possible. Bob Davids, CEO of a successfully “liberated” company, quoted by Isaac Getz in Freedom, Inc., said: "A drop of urine in the pot and all the soup is ruined." In our case, the pot was not very large. It was and remainsconstrained by many rules defined by other departments.But each member of our team did and still does his best not to spoil the soup.
The following pages attempt to explain the objectives and principles pursued in terms of management style within our team over the past years and the concrete actions that have been implemented to do so. Ironically, this was never communicated as such. Although our intention was clear from the start, the formulation of our principles took time to mature. To talk too early about them could also have been dangerous in many respects. Besides, we could not claim to have succeeded perfectly, at this stage, the implementation of these principles: "It is a work in progress." Nevertheless, the purpose of this paper, written in its original form in 2012 was to compare these ideas with those that others have implicitly developed based on their own daily experience and to share them with those who could benefit from our experience.
In practice, the actions we tookcan be grouped around the three principles enunciated by Isaac Getz & Brian Carney in their book "Freedom, Inc.":
1. Build a culture where everyone is treated intrinsically as equals
2. Build a culture in which all can grow personally, not just professionally
3. Build a culture in which everyone can self-direct
- Build a culture where everyone is treated intrinsically as equals
1.1.The Whyway
Everything can be questioned by anyone - no taboos. The most important task of managers (and of any team member) is to ask questions (typically, those who question the most and in the most relevant way are also those who have experienced the most rapid promotions). Everyone participates in some form or another to the development of the strategy, gives his opinion, or suggests process improvements, innovations... This questioning is stimulated by the following actions:
1.1.1.Open conversations
Make sure that all team members are to be made aware of strategy and managerial challenges and their critical thinking should be stimulated at all levels:
-Communicate openly, share information (sharing of information by the top management committee without restraint; no censorship); stimulate conversations, engage in courageous conversations, renew the key missing conversation (introduction of Blue Kiwi, yammer,…)
-Make sure everybody, at all levels, understands the business challenges (understandable and transparent presentation of the budget, the results,… discussed with the whole team; in a similar vein, noncommercial people can participate, if they wish to,to meetings of the sales teams)
-Organize regularly off-sites with the team, during which anyone can suggest improvements in the management and during which the members of the Management Team (MT) individually undertake to implement those prioritized by the whole team (show of hands). This is a form of 360° evaluation of the Management by the whole team.
1.1.2.Participation
Any BU members (by rotation) can participate inthe management team meetings; non-members of the management team are secretary of the management team.
1.1.3.Diversity
Promote the diversity of ideas (not limited to the gender or “handicap” diversity to be "politically correct")
-Protect divergent and dissenting voices;stimulate authentic questions; accept questions even if they seem foolish
-Stimulate your BU members to meet regularly people from different backgrounds, even if they are not directly related to the business,... (NGO activists, artists, philosophers,...)
1.2.Humility
1.2.1.Ignorance’s strength
Recognize readily your mistakes, your own ignorance
1.2.2.Transparency
Ongoing search for the greatest possible transparency vis-à-vis the client (through difficult messages, fully assume our mistakes...)
1.2.3.No Titles
Suppress, as far as possible, differentiating titles within your team; allow people to choose the titles on their cards depending on the clients they visit
1.3.Equity
Ensure the fairest possible sharing of compensations and other benefits
1.3.1.Wage gap reduction
Narrow gradually, as far as possible, unjustified wage gaps
(even those that HR does not want to recognize at a more global level)
1.3.2.Bonus sharing
Do not distribute bonuses on individual merits alone but also taking into account how people support and help each other
1.3.3.Open space for all
Abandon individual offices for all, including members of the management team
- Build a culture in which all can grow personally,not just professionally
2.1.Exploration
2.1.1.Open trainings
-Ensure personal development of each BU member is a top priority; Long term personal and professional development of BU members come before short-term interests of the department
-Never retain somebody in the BU if it is in his interest to leave it; on the contrary, support personal growth of colleagues even if it may seem to hurt your department in the short run: the organization is fundamentally at the service of the BU members; which does not mean that the members are allowed to abuse the organization. If the organization truly respects its members, the members will respect it also
-Accept all training requests are accepted (to the extent of the available resources), even if they do not directly address an identified need by the organization
-Stimulate continuous learning, to read texts and books that help them go beyond the strict scope of their daily work, to go "further" (see 1.1.1.).
2.1.2.Collective intelligence
-Stimulate collective learning, through a regular reflection on what we have achieved, why and how; ensure the culture is open to any criticism of the strategy, management style (see 1.1.1. and 1.1.3.); recognize the role of each member in the development of the team or BU.
-Consult regularly all members on a variety of subjects (the collective judgment is often stronger than the opinion of one person);
2.1.3.Godfathers
-Ensure everybody has a godfather/mother, vertically (seniors vis-à-vis young recruits) or horizontally (e.g. between members of the management team)
2.2.Trust
Strengthen the confidence in all members of their own capabilities and capacity to develop
2.2.1.Risky appointments & recruitments
Whenever possible, ignore willfully the content of job descriptions or past experiences
-Dare to appoint people to positions of team leadership even if they have no track record yet as team leaders
-Recruitor appoint people even if they lack the formal qualifications requested for the job
-Involve as many people as possible in the promotion or recruitment process (whenever possible involve team members in the selection of their future team leader)
2.2.2.Errors celebration
Celebrate even errors because they are essential for progress and that most often they are the result of positive initiatives
2.2.3.Faith in their resilience
Show you believe in your BU members’ ability to bounce back
2.3.Benevolence
Ensure fundamental respect for each person and his work
2.3.1.Craftmanship
Give special attention to the “craft” quality of the work, before any other considerations (productivity, profitability,...), without falling into “details traps”.
2.3.2.Dignity
Respect the dignity of each person, regardless of the circumstances. Try to empower without being intrusive, to stimulate achievement without alienating
2.3.3.Coherence
Pay great attention to consistency and justice when dealing with problems or internal conflicts
- Build a culture in which everyone can self-direct
3.1.Adults
Treat each BU member as an adult
3.1.1.No rules
Suppress time controls and, as much as possible, formal rules and controls that "infantilize" (clothes, holidays, schedules, attendance at meetings only if real value added, anybody can leave a meeting at any time if he/she deems it is a waste of time,…)
3.1.2.No formalized credos
Throw away codes of conduct, vision or mission statement that people cannot spontaneously state and explain without help to a stranger
3.1.3.No monkeys
Refuse to solve problems that can be directly solved by your people; ask questions rather than feel obliged to provide solutions to employees who have a challenge (see 1.1.)
3.2.Engagement
3.2.1.Team practices
Develop ways to make the culture of the BU “special”
-Let other departments/BU/clients know that we developed our own alternative services, processes and ways of doing things
-Identify our weak spots and work on them in a constructive way
-Protect the BU as much as possible from pressure coming from the rest of the organization or from outside
-Disseminate (stay long enough under radar) the BU alternative management practices (through internal and external conferences, seminars) slowly and quietly.
3.2.2.Common good
Stimulate the engagement of BU members in society, to contribute to the resolution of “societal” problems through their work, internally and externally; this can take various forms:
-Engaging in breaking internal or external mindsets "silos";
-Giving priority to common goods interests above those of the organization if they should clash: eg. serve less profitable sectors, avoid maximizing profits on clients that could not afford it, even if it would be legal to do so,...
-Invite all BU members to think strategically about how the BU can best perform its role in society
-Ensure that other values than profit maximization are taken into account to guide our actions; deny the primacy of market shares and profitsas objectives,...
3.2.3.Societal projects
-Stimulate each BU member (without obligation) to participate in a cross-project within the bank or a social project (egMicrostart) and to reflect on our role in society
-Develop and adopt KPIs (non-financial and qualitative) related to CSR
-Promote a “life’s great” culture (you compete against a societal problem alongside other companies; you don’t compete against other companies in the sector)
3.3.Letgo
Give up gradually top-down controls. This is not contradictory with engagement. It goes hand in hand rather than with it.
3.3.1.Loosen-up
-Relax gradually formal and hierarchical follow-up of financial KPIs
-Focus during assessments on issues related to personal development, to work quality (within limits, of course, imposed by the rest of the organization which might be increasingly fond of controls, audits, or procedures)
-Always delegateat the "lowest" possible level
-Give more and more room for intuition and luck
3.3.2.Balcony
-Leave the dance floor regularly to get on the balcony
-Improvise: the general objectives to very long terms are clear to all but the strategy to achieve the constantly adapted to the market changes ...
3.3.3.Vanish
Phase outyour role as head of the BU
-Intervene less and let the internal dynamic of the BU organically take care of itself;
-Take physical distance from the group, be more and more absent (meetings, office, ...) while staying there to support benevolently: being there without being there ...;
-Let other team members grow and develop to be able to replace you (extension of 3.1.3).
Impact
The result of all this is much more than the financial results (which were very good, even exceptional – see annex). It can help your team to move up the stages of culture. I consider in four years we moved to a level 2 (our life sucked; we were ignored and even despised from the rest of the organization – we were referred to as the “court of miracles” – to a level 4 (we were great; we started to attract the young and brightest; moved up close to the CEO office), sometimes even close to a level 5.
The best concrete example is that we established a structure of stable relationships, where most BU members did not just care about their bilateral relationships but also cared about the bilateral relationships of other BU members: triads.
So, if it is so good then why aren’t these principles applied by more organizations? What gets in the way? What is the major obstacle to implement them?
Well, most of the time, the major obstacle is… you, your ego, your desires to shine, to be recognized. You need to let that go in order to be ready to “vanish” and let other people shine. These ideas are not new however. In 630 BC, Lao Tzu said already:
“A leader is best When people barely know he exists;
Not so good When people obey and acclaim Him;
Worst When They despise Him”
Similarly, great martial arts masters let “it” shoot. They don’t claim to shoot. Their mastery resides precisely in letting their ego retreat, vanish, to let “it” shoot.
I have developed these ideas in “Spirituality & Management”, an article I published originally in French in a collection of Essays, and in “The 3 levels of consciousness of responsible organizations”., an article prepared for LEAD-IN’s center of expertise “Leadership & the new economy.
This does not mean of course that “leadership” does not matter. As Pfeffer & Sutton argue in their article "Great leaders do they contribute really to the performance of their business?"(published in" Facts and crap in the management "Vuibert 2006): "Great leaders are smart enough to act as if they controlled the situation and wise enough to be aware that they do not control.” Philosopher & leadership consultant Mark Strom expresses nicely: “To lead wisely is to pay attention to, the very ordinary, yet difficult, human phenomenon of how a person comes to the fore in one context & gets behind someone else in another”.
Annex