Self-management is the way

In traditional companies, such as health companies, power is very concentrated. Individuals above distrust those below because they believe that if they allow them the autonomy they will blow their budgets and, as a result, professionals have simply become rigid gears in the machine with virtually no room to make decisions. For their part, politicians always find reasons to distrust managers in case of any budgetary deviation or up-tick in citizen unrest - waiting lists for example. Managers, fearful of their predicament, concentrate power in a few subordinates to maintain tight control of objectives whilst rejecting any innovations from those below due to suspicion of increasing expenses or creating scandals.

How can you unblock that suffocating hierarchy?

Corporate Rebels is a group of young enthusiasts that analyze the most innovative organizations on the planet with the mission of learning from them and thus being able to help businesses evolve. Considering the professional work environment as rigid as health, the question is: can we learn from Corporate Rebels? The answer, in my opinion, is positive, and I will defend it from two posts published in his blog.

The leaders of the changes

From "Why front line employees should make all decisions?", I must highlight the figure of the change leader. According to Corporate Rebels, of all professionals who work in the front line, managers should discover those which could lead changes, not to promote them within the hierarchy and create another fixed gear but to give them the capability to execute that idea that that individual has, precisely because it is a problem that affects him, or because he has seen how they solve it better elsewhere or simply because he believes there is an opportunity for improvement. Change leaders should be identified, heard and, once they have justified their arguments, they should be asked to start the councilling process.

The advice process

This methodology was described by Frederic Laloux as being one of the most suggestive working instruments of evolutionary organizations and, according to this dynamic, change leaders must open processes to listen to all points of view impacting the innovation that they are defending and, for this reason, they must summon, one by one, all the people who may be affected by this proposed change. Dennis Bakke, co-founder of AES Corporation, in an interview with Corporate Rebels called "Rebellious practices: make better decisions with the advice process", says that the advice process gives more guarantees of success than the hierarchical model because, firstly, the sole fact that the leader of change humbly asking for advice creates an environment favourable to innovation and, secondly, because both the leaders of the change think are much closer to real problems than managers.

How to reduce risks for managers?

With innovation the risk of being wrong is always present, it is part of the dynamics and the possibility of generating budgetary deviations as well. Therefore, the only way to make progress compatible with rigour is to make it clear from the outset the framework (resources, personnel, money) must be preserved by the leaders of the change, but, on the other hand, once the advice process ends with the project well documented and dimensioned, the decision to move forward with innovation corresponds to the change leaders, while the role of managers is to protect such initiatives from interference from  conservatives

The hierarchical models of concentration of power have reached their limit of ineffectiveness and, therefore, what is needed now is to identify people who can act, ask them to create positive environments and take responsible decisions with clear accountability.

Jordi Varela

Editor