Rebel takeover

摘要

Disruptive management ideas such as self-managing teams have been around since the 1950s. However, it wasn't until the 1970s and 1980s that flexible and informal structures really started gaining traction. Then came the internet. In the 1990s, startup founders were afforded the freedom to design their own ways of running a business - from agile methodologies to the radical decentralisation offered by holacracy. Over the past few years, rebel thinkers have come to the fore once again. Chief among them is Frederic Laloux, a former management consultant at McKinsey and author of the 2014 book Reinventing Organizations. Laloux argues that the companies of the future will be 'teal', transcending the 'amber', 'orange' and 'green' organisational structures that went before. Teal companies will be hierarchy-free, controlled instead by self-managing structures that provide a space for employees to thrive as individuals. In short, the company would operate 'organically', like an insect colony or cells communicating within the human body.