Abstract
When Fréderic Laloux published his book Re-inventing
Organizations the word ‘Teal’ became equivalent for the
self-organizing, non-hierarchical organization. Agile has similar ambitions.
This article offers a Spiral Dynamics based tool for any team or organization on an
evolutionary journey.
Introduction
Since Fréderic Laloux’s book
Re-inventing organizations came out there has been a lot of talk about the
‘Teal organization’. To what extent is an Agile organization equivalent to a
Teal organization? When we look at self-organizing teams there are undoubtedly
comparisons. Agile however is still mainly applied in software development
whereas the Teal examples are spread out over all kinds of sectors. Other agile
organizational models such as Holacracy and Sociocracy 3.0 don’t focus on any
specific field. The first is mentioned as an example by Laloux in the
consultancy firm Holacracy One where the second is fairly new. And then there
are too many new models popping up to keep track of. This is what makes
Laloux’s perspective so interesting, because he focuses on the values that shape
the models, frameworks, methods etc. As ‘form follows function’ the
organizational model itself should be flexible, roles of people change as does
governance if the situation asks for it to keep moving towards the
organization’s evolutionary purpose.
If you follow Laloux’s
reasoning and use his lens to look at western society then a large part of settled
organizations seem to comply to Conformist Amber, like most government
institutions, schools, hospitals etc. (You will find a detailed overview of the
value systems and related colours further on in this article.) In second place
it is Success-driven Orange which is the dominant value system when it comes to
power and money, most banks are good examples. People and organizations
operating from Pluralistic Green can be found in most NGOs. Evolutionary Teal
organizations are still not so easy to find yet growing in numbers and the
interest for how they operate is growing as well.
So, what makes Teal so
attractive that so many people and organizations seems to want something from
it or to be in it? Is it just because, according to the Spiral Dynamics model
it might be higher up the ‘ladder of evolution’? Could it be business success
and money driven? Or is it because urgency in the world to start thinking and
acting from these Teal values is higher than ever? As Einstein said: “Problems
cannot be solved from the same level of consciousness that created them.” Is it
all of aforementioned reasons or something else completely? Global (sustainability)
challenges ask for systemic changes that all individual value systems are
unable to tackle on their own. Therefore we need all people and perspectives
and all possible social, economic and ecological solutions to deal with our
current global issues. Leadership from a Teal value system may connect and
integrate all.
The percentage of people that
operate from Teal is growing. My experience is that you don’t find them in
groups, but rather hidden in organizations or operating solo. We do not need to
‘be Teal’ to be able to contribute to integral solutions and Agile/Teal
organizations. We need to use our own unique assets, unite them without
judgement and collaborate towards a common purpose while we continue our own
evolutionary journey. Is that Agile?
So, where do you stand as a
person, a team or an organization? Are you adaptive enough to constantly
changing surroundings? Can you deal with not-knowing? Are communication and
collaboration highly valued in your team and organization? Does your
organization have an evolutionary purpose? And what is yours? These and other
questions may be answered by applying the following models and guiding
questions.
Embarking on the journey towards
Agile and/or Teal
Below you find the Quadrant
that was introduced by Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory. When applied on a specific
case that a team, department or organization is dealing with it may offer some
proper insights. By taking someone through the quadrant step by step and asking
a set of guiding questions the participant comes to her/his and the
organization’s interior values and how they show themselves in exterior,
tangible behaviour, culture and structures.
The second step is to take all
participants through a set of questions based on the Spiral Dynamics model that
Laloux uses in his book. Dominating value systems become visible as well as
related behaviour that is either constructive or destructive for the
organization’s purpose. Also it may become clear which value systems are less
or not enough present in the team or organization which may be an impediment to
create a healthy balance.
Have a look and read through
the questions. As you will see I have chosen the colours that Laloux has taken
from Ken Wilber’s model. These are sometimes different from the ones Clare
Graves used in Spiral Dynamics.
Source: Ken Wilber’s
Integral Theory
Guiding
questions for the four quadrants
Bottom
right:
Can you briefly say something about the context in which this case takes place?
Who are the parties involved? What are the goals? What is the influence of the
system (specific context of the organization, market situation, politics,
legislation, etc.)?
Top
left:
What does this case do to me personally? What touches me so deeply? What are my
values, what is my vision regarding this case?
Bottom
left side:
Who are involved in this case? Is there cooperation and a common vision? Do you
feel supported by the environment to take the next step? What is the degree of
trust? How deep do conversations go (to merely exchanging courtesies, debate or
having proper dialogue?)
Top
right
What solutions does the case call for? Do you have energy to get started? Which
skills are supportive and / or impeding?
Guiding questions with the value systems
Which aspects can be found in the case? How do the
different value systems manifest themselves in this case? What are
healthy and what are unhealthy expressions?
Beige: To what
extent are people involved who cannot take care of themselves and need help?
Does the case have anything to do with the survival of the organization?
Purple: To what
extent is there a feeling of solidarity? Are you proud of the organization and
its history? Do you know certain rituals within the organization?
Red: To what
extent is there decisiveness in the approach to the case? To what extent do
power relations and positions play a role? To what extent do stakeholders take
their position? With authority?
Amber: To what
extent are the procedures, regulations, existing structures around the case
clear? How is the culture around making agreements and
adhering to them?
Orange: To what extent does one work
purposefully and strategically on achieving certain goals? Is there a focus on
facts, success / result and is there cost awareness? Is there room for
different views?
Green: To what
extent is there attention for process aspects and quality of communication in
the case? Are all those involved heard? Is there cooperation in openness?
Teal: To what extent is
there space and time for not knowing? What could be a transcending purpose?
-
What can be the constructive contribution
of the other value systems to achieve that purpose?
-
Which value systems (within the
organization or with certain key figures) are closed, which are blocked and
which ones are open? To what extent were you yourself open
and centred on the important moments for this case?
-
To what extent do the relevant people
involved take responsibility from their own dominant value system or where do
they let them run?
Indigo: Since there is so little
known of this value system I dare not include this yet in this exercise.
Harvest and Next Steps
After this exercise you
will have an overview of the dominating value system(s) in your team and/or
organization as well as which ones may be less represented or not at all. Also
you may find which expressions of certain value systems are healthy ones and
which are working against a harmonious collaboration towards the common
purpose.
From these insight you
can take all kinds of next steps. Which ones to take is completely dependent on
the outcomes of this exercise. Make sure you do make an action plan and that you
evaluate at times whether the actions are successful. Keep in mind that this
exercise generates a picture of the current situation. Teams and organization
are dynamic so make sure you look at the outcomes as part of an ongoing
process.
One great advantage that
I find in this exercise is that it deals with values, which are the roots from
which people act, behave, speak and how they interpret the world and give
meaning to their work. This gives the potential to create awareness that may
already set change in motion.
Working with values also
makes it challenging, which might be seen as a disadvantage. Too easily
interpretations of behavior are assigned to specific value systems instead of
looking at it the other way around. Reality is always more nuanced than what we
can perceive. What we see might be true, but there is always more truth to be
found. It takes a coach with a complex mindset to get the best out of this
exercise and to take people to the depths of their values.
Training and Workshops
If you want to know more or if you are interested in
training or a guided workshop from half a day up to multiple days, please
contact the author.
About the author
Sebastiaan van Zaanen, Agile coach at
CTRL-Improve, holds a MA in Business Communication and a MSc in Strategic
Leadership towards Sustainability. He is both Agile coach as well as a social
entrepreneur with a focus on contributing to the transition towards a sustainable society. Systems
thinking, facilitating participatory group processes and leadership in
complexity are his strong assets. Besides developing mere cognitive
intelligence he believes in an integral approach to personal growth. He finds
this in his daily martial arts practice.
