Category Archives: Innovative Management

Plénitude As described in an earlier blog post, we visited Frederic Laloux earlier this year in Brussels. This meeting was nothing like you would expect a meeting to be like. The first sign that it was going to be different was the fact that we were invited to share a dinner with him and his wife at their home. So, we headed towards Brussels with our stomachs empty and our heads filled with expectations. Once we arrived in Brussels at his doorstep, Frederic enthusiastically opened the door and welcomed us in. We entered the house and met Helene, his wife, in the living room. According to Dutch habit, we went out to greet her with […]

Morning star’s success story Here’s a company that was on our Bucket List as one of the very first: The Morning Star Company. With a 10% market share Morning Star is the largest tomato processor in the world. Their unique way of working has been extensively described in well-known publications such as the Harvard Business Review and Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organizations. It is a prime example of a successful self-managing organization with some unique practices in place. The post is a bit longer than what you are used to here, but we didn’t want to shorten it or break it up into two parts. As there’s nothing we want to keep […]

Safety–management / leadership I teach leadership for a global corporation that starts each day with a “Safety Moment.” The exercise is designed to decrease physical accidents. When I try to teach these leaders to engage in conversations that might trigger emotions and prompt opinions contrary to their own, they claim a lack of time and value. Leaders often don’t connect the need for psychological safety to physical safety. Dr. Amy Edmondson, a Harvard business professor, says. “Psychological safety describes the individuals’ perceptions about the consequences of interpersonal risk in their work environment. It consists of taken-for-granted beliefs about how others will respond when one puts oneself on the line, such […]

Servant Leadership Le modèle classique d’organisation de l’entreprise, directement issu des traditions militaire ou ecclésiastique, conduit à mettre en avant la figure du dirigeant héros ou sauveur. Par voie de conséquence, le mode de relation avec les membres de l’organisation est forcément monarchique, voire autocratique. Il est temps de changer de paradigme et de promouvoir le leader qui renverse le sens de la relation, se mettant au service de ses troupes, elles-mêmes au service d’un projet. Au-delà de la grave crise conjoncturelle qui a affecté ces dernières années beaucoup d’entreprises et d’organisations, celles-ci sont aujourd’hui de plus en plus confrontées à une crise «structurelle» des modes de management. Elle se […]