Book review: Reinventing organizations (illustrated)

Reinventing organizations: an illustrated invitation to join the conversation on next-stage organizations, by Frederic Laloux, introduces modern management ideas, and how the organisations we work for could change. Unlike most management books, which focus on success in existing organisations, this book aims to change how we think about organisational models. This book offers nothing less than a manifesto for a revolution.

Teal organisations

The first part of the book classifies organisation models according to their evolution through human history. This introduces ‘teal organisations’, the organisational version of Maslow’s self-actualisation. In reinventing organisations, Laloux describes this as the next step from the current dominant organisation paradigms, to an evolutionary world view.

I like how this classification simultaneously offers a straightforward way to understand organisational models, identifies a problem that needs solving, and names (or at least colour-codes) the solution. This resonated so well that I could immediately understand where the companies I’ve worked for fit it.

Three breakthroughs

The main part of the book describes how teal organisations work, summarising three ‘breakthroughs’ :

1. self-management – from fixed hierarchies to ‘fluid systems of distributed authority’
2. wholeness – from wearing a ‘professional’ mask, to fully showing up as ourselves
3. evolutionary purpose – from empty mission statements to actually taking purpose seriously

Each of these sections mixes concepts, theory, explanations, and examples from companies the author has studied. As with every framework that breaks a new idea into three familiar ones, this successfully explains teal organisations in terms of ideas that you’ve heard of, even if you haven’t experienced them.

I liked how this section worked hard to make these breakthroughs real, not just theoretical, with more details from the case study organisations. I also appreciate the practical examples in the section on wholeness that the reader might be able to try.

An illustrated invitation

This illustrated invitation abridges (and illustrates) the original Reinventing Organizations book. In one sense, this results in a more accessible introduction to the topic, that doesn’t take as long to read. However, that diminishes the sense in which this edition improves on the longer and more-detailed original.

The large 20 × 25 cm format creates space for many illustrations, on every page, and page layouts that present information better than the usual wall of text. Meanwhile, the 172 pages focus on the original book’s core ideas. I found the reading experience unusual but refreshing, and suspect that every business book would benefit from this treatment.

I did find the large format somewhat unwieldy, though. I wonder if a more conventional (but still large) 152 × 229 mm trade paperback would work better, with smaller illustrations, less whitespace, and more pages.

Reinventing organisations

In a world where the oldest generation of managers still think that Peter Drucker wrote the last word on management, organisations desperately need reinventing, to update them for the world we now live in. We need to move on from orange organisations’ management by objectives, which Drucker wrote about over 70 years ago, in The Practice of Management. This book helps.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Recommended.