<aside> ℹ️ Key Takeaways
Reinventing Organizations is a book written by Frederic Laloux that explores the concept of self-management and the use of innovative organizational structures to promote collaboration, creativity, and innovation within organizations.
In the book, Laloux argues that traditional hierarchies and managerial structures are often inefficient and ineffective, and that they can stifle innovation and creativity. Instead, he proposes the use of self-managing structures that allow individuals to work together in a more collaborative and autonomous way. These structures, which he refers to as "teal organizations," are characterized by a strong sense of purpose, trust, and transparency, and they rely on the collective intelligence and creativity of the group to make decisions and solve problems.
Overall, Reinventing Organizations is a thought-provoking book that offers an alternative vision for the way organizations can be structured and managed, and it has had a significant impact on the way many people think about organizational design and management.
Laloux, Frédéric. Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness (pp. 9-10). Nelson Parker. Kindle Edition.
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Highlight (yellow) - Page 7 · Location 81 Video series “ Insights for the Journey ” The book asks the question : is it possible to run organizations from a higher stage of consciousness ? The answer is clearly yes . That raises an obvious next question : but then , how to you transform existing organizations , small or large ? With so many organizations making the leap , we are starting to learn what it takes . The 100 - plus videos in the new video series I created share the most interesting insights I have collected in conversation with leaders in these organizations . If you want to go on this journey with your own organization , check out the videos ! thejourney.reinventingorganizations.com You can find the link to other resources , like the Reinventing Organizations Wiki here : reinventingorganizations.com / resources.html . Foreword Highlight (yellow) - Page 9 · Location 91 It is , without doubt , on the leading - edge of a type of work we are seeing more and more of at this time : namely , that concerned with the extremely profound changes in consciousness , culture , and social systems that we are seeing emerge , in increasing numbers , at this point in human ( and , indeed , cosmic ) evolution . Frederic Laloux’s work focuses specifically on the values , practices , and structures of organizations — large and small — that seem to be driven by this extraordinary transformation in consciousness occurring around the world . He offers a very detailed and practical account — what amounts to a handbook , really — for people who feel that the current management paradigm is deeply limiting and yearn to bring more consciousness to the way we run organizations but wonder if it is possible and how to do it . Highlight (yellow) - Page 10 · Location 102 known variously as pluralistic and integral , individualistic and autonomous , relativistic and systemic , HumanBond and Flexflow , green and teal , and order 4.5 and order 5.0 , among many others . Highlight (yellow) - Page 10 · Location 114 Laloux’s book speaks from an Integral perspective and is grounded in a sophisticated understanding of evolutionary and developmental theory and what in Integral theory is called AQAL ( all quadrants , all levels ) . Highlight (yellow) - Page 15 · Location 180 “ integrated , ” “ integral , ” “ autonomous , ” “ second tier , ” “ inclusive , ” “ systemic ” — Highlight (yellow) - Page 18 · Location 223 According to Integral Theory , any comprehensive account of anything requires a look at all of these perspectives — the first - person ( “ I ” ) , second - person ( “ you ” and “ we ” ) , and third - person ( “ it ” and “ its ” ) perspectives . Most human disciplines acknowledge only one or two of these quadrants and either ignore or deny any real existence to the others . Thus , in consciousness studies , for example , the field is fairly evenly divided between those who believe consciousness is solely the product of Upper - Right or objective “ it ” processes ( namely , the human brain and its activities ) ; while the other half of the field believes consciousness itself ( the Upper - Left or subjective “ I ” space ) is primary , and all objects ( such as the brain ) arise in that consciousness field . Integral Theory maintains that both of those views are right ; that is , both of those quadrants ( and the other two quadrants ) all arise together , simultaneously , and mutually influence each other as correlative aspects of the Whole . Trying to reduce all of the quadrants to one quadrant is “ quadrant absolutism , ” a wretched form of reductionism that obscures much more than it clarifies ; while seeing all of the quadrants mutually arise and “ tetra - evolve ” sheds enormous light on perpetually puzzling problems ( from the body / mind problem to the relation of science and spirituality to the mechanism of evolution itself ) . Highlight (yellow) - Page 19 · Location 234 “ The four - quadrant model shows how deeply mindsets [ Upper - Left or “ I ” ] , culture [ Lower - Left or “ we ” ] , behaviors [ Upper - Right or “ it ” ] , and systems [ Lower - Right or “ its ” ] are intertwined . A change in any one dimension will ripple through all the others . ” He goes on to point out that Mythic and Modern theories of organization focus on “ hard ” exterior facts ( the two Right - hand quadrants ) , and the Postmodern introduced the interiors of mindsets and culture ( the two Left - hand quadrants ) — while often going overboard , as Postmodernism in general did , and claimed that only culture was important . Highlight (yellow) - Page 21 · Location 258 All of the multiple intelligences in humans develop through actualization hierarchies . Cognition , for example , moves from sensorimotor intelligence , to images , then symbols , then concepts , then schema , then rules , then meta - rules , then systemic networks . This is a point worth emphasizing , because Laloux’s book shows that organizations operating at the Integral or teal stage no longer work with dominator hierarchies , the boss - subordinate relationships that are pervasive in organizations today . Highlight (yellow) - Page 21 · Location 264 actualization hierarchies , which are the primary form of natural growth , development , and evolution in the world — atoms to molecules to cells to organisms , for example . Highlight (yellow) - Page 22 · Location 273 This makes each team , and each person in the team , much more Integral — they can operate on any level in the hierarchy they are capable of , as long as they consult with those who will be affected by the decision ( although they don’t have to follow the advice ) , Introduction Highlight (yellow) - Page 24 · Location 290 You never change things by fighting the existing reality . To change something , build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete . Richard Buckminster Fuller Highlight (yellow) - Page 27 · Location 341 None of the recent advances in human history would have been possible without organizations as vehicles for human collaboration . Highlight (yellow) - Page 29 · Location 357 Most organizations have gone through many rounds of change programs , mergers , centralizations and decentralizations , new IT systems , new mission statements , new scorecards , or new incentive systems . It feels like we have stretched the current way we run organizations to its limits , and these traditional recipes often seem part of the problem , not the solution . Highlight (yellow) - Page 30 · Location 379 Einstein once famously said that problems couldn’t be solved with the same level of consciousness that created them in the first place . Highlight (yellow) - Page 31 · Location 383 A great number of scholars — psychologists , philosophers , and anthropologists , among others — have dissected the journey of human consciousness . They found that in the roughly 100,000 - year history of humanity , we have gone through a number of successive stages . At every stage we made a leap in our abilities — cognitively , morally , and psychologically — to deal with the world . There is one important aspect that researchers have so far somewhat overlooked : every time humanity has shifted to a new stage , it has invented a new way to collaborate , a new organizational model . Highlight (yellow) - Page 31 · Location 391 developmental psychology has much to say about the next stage of human consciousness , the one we are just starting to transition into . This next stage involves taming our ego and searching for more authentic , more wholesome ways of being . If the past is any guide to the future , then as we grow into the next stage of consciousness , we will also develop a corresponding organizational model . Highlight (yellow) - Page 34 · Location 431 are there patterns and commonalities that point to a coherent new model ? Can the pioneers provide not just inspiration , but a template for those aspiring to create more soulful types of organizations ? Highlight (yellow) - Page 34 · Location 436 a coherent organizational model seems to be emerging , one we can describe in quite some detail . This is not a theoretical model , not a utopian idea , but a very concrete way to run organizations from a higher stage of consciousness . If we accept that there is a direction to human evolution , then we hold here something rather extraordinary : the blueprint of the future of organizations , the blueprint to the future of work itself . Highlight (yellow) - Page 36 · Location 454 Anthropologist Margaret Meade once said , “ Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world . Indeed , it is the only thing that ever has . ” Part 1 - Historical and Developmental Perspective Highlight (yellow) - 1.1 - Changing paradigms: past and present organizational models > Page 38 · Location 464 Seeing is not believing ; believing is seeing ! You see things , not as they are , but as you are . Eric Butterworth Highlight (yellow) - 1.1 - Changing paradigms: past and present organizational models > Page 39 · Location 485 how has humanity evolved from the earliest forms of human consciousness to the complex consciousness of modern times ? ( Some inquired into a related question : how do we human beings evolve today from the comparatively simple form of consciousness we have at birth to the full extent of adult maturity ? ) People have looked at these questions from every possible angle . Abraham Maslow famously looked at how human needs evolve along the human journey , from basic physiological needs to self - actualization . Others looked at development through the lenses of worldviews ( Gebser , among others ) , cognitive capacities ( Piaget ) , values ( Graves ) , moral development ( Kohlberg , Gilligan ) , self - identity ( Loevinger ) , spirituality ( Fowler ) , leadership ( Cook - Greuter , Kegan , Torbert ) , and so on . In their exploration , they found consistently that humanity evolves in stages . We are not like trees that grow continuously . We evolve by sudden transformations , like a caterpillar that becomes a butterfly , or a tadpole a frog . Highlight (yellow) - 1.2 - About stages of development > Page 75 · Location 971 There is nothing inherently “ better ” about being at a higher level of development , just as an adolescent is not “ better ” than a toddler . However , the fact remains that an adolescent is able to do more , because he or she can think in more sophisticated ways than a toddler . Any level of development is okay ; the question is whether that level of development is a good fit for the task at hand . Nick Petrie Highlight (yellow) - 1.2 - About stages of development > Page 77 · Location 997 Every paradigm includes and transcends the previous . So if we have learned to operate from , say , Achievement - Orange , we still have the ability , when appropriate , to also react from Conformist - Amber or Impulsive - Red . Even the opposite is true to some extent : were we to be surrounded by people operating from a later stage , for example , Pluralistic - Green , we could temporarily display Green behaviors , even though we wouldn’t yet have integrated this stage . There are many dimensions of human development — cognitive , moral , psychological , social , spiritual , and so on — and we don’t necessarily grow at the same pace in all of them . For example , we might have internalized Orange cognition and be running an innovative business , but on the spiritual side , we espouse an Amber Christian fundamentalist belief . Highlight (yellow) - 1.2 - About stages of development > Page 77 · Location 1005 Don Beck , a student of developmental psychologist Clare Graves , uses an insightful analogy : If evolution were music , stages of development would be musical notes , vibrating at certain frequencies . Human beings would be like strings , capable of playing many different notes . The range of notes they can play depends on the range of tensions they have learned to accommodate . Highlight (yellow) - 1.2 - About stages of development > Page 78 · Location 1016 What triggers a person to open up to a later , more complex stage of consciousness ? According to the research , the trigger for vertical growth always comes in the form of a major life challenge that cannot be resolved from the current worldview . Highlight (yellow) - 1.2 - About stages of development > Page 79 · Location 1029 What can be done is to create environments that are conducive to growing into later stages . When someone is surrounded by peers who already see the world from a more complex perspective , in a context safe enough to explore inner conflicts , chances are higher that the person will make the leap19 . Highlight (yellow) - 1.2 - About stages of development > Page 79 · Location 1036 If we look at an organization’s structure , its practices , and its cultural elements , we can generally discern what worldview they stem from . Let’s take the topic of compensation to illustrate this : If the boss can freely , on a whim , decide to increase or reduce pay , that would be consistent with the Impulsive - Red paradigm . If salaries are fixed and determined by the person’s level in the hierarchy ( or the person’s diploma ) , that sounds like Conformist - Amber . A system that stresses individual incentives if people reach predetermined targets probably stems from an Achievement - Orange worldview . A focus on team bonuses would be in line with a Pluralistic - Green perspective . Highlight (yellow) - 1.2 - About stages of development > Page 81 · Location 1053 What determines which stage an organization operates from ? It is the stage through which its leadership tends to look at the world . Consciously or unconsciously , leaders put in place organizational structures , practices , and cultures that make sense to them , that correspond to their way of dealing with the world .