Going Horizontal

Creating a Non-Hierarchical Organization, One Practice at a Time

Samantha Slade

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781523095285
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Organisational Development
• Index: Business

Hierarchy in organizations is obsolete. There is a better way: one that increases the engagement of employees and managers alike, reduces micromanaging and other limiting approaches, and promotes organizational and individual success. In this book, self-management expert Samantha Slade presents seven concrete practices to help your organization flatten its existing hierarchy and develop a horizontal organization. The result will be enhanced creativity, greater growth, and a increased employee retention and productivity—and a better bottom line. These days, more than ever, successful organizations must respond quickly and nimbly to change—they need every employee's best thinking. A horizontal organization creates an environment of true collaboration, respect, and openness. It allows everyone more freedom to express unconventional ideas or to work through issues that are getting in the way of organizational goals. And it's a more human way to organize—after all, we function perfectly well in our day-to day lives without someone telling us what to do. But when an organization decides to go horizontal, it can be overwhelming for both managers and employees. Slade offers a practical, proven, incremental method to help organizations of all kinds and sizes ease in to a non-hierarchical model. She includes techniques for using your organization's purpose to stay focused and aligned, developing shared decision-making, creating a mutual feedback culture, nurturing autonomy, holding co-managed meetings, and maintaining an environment of collective learning. Going Horizontal will help organizations become more adaptive, collaborative and innovative, which is vital in today's highly competitive and constantly-evolving world.

INDEX

Page numbers followed by a t indicate a table, and those followed by an f indicate a figure.

Accommodation, 184

Accountability. See also Collective accountability

for decisions, 137

holding one another accountable, 14–15, 53

Actions, participatory and responsive, 16

Administrative role, 50

Advice process, 124

Agenda items, recurring, 84

Agenda setting, 84–88

collective, 75, 84

Agile agenda approach, 85–88

Agile movement, 41

Agreement, ways of scrutinizing, 128–29

Agreement systems, using different types of, 128–131

“All other business,” 85

Anthropology, ix, xiii

Attendance, self-determining, 88–90

Autonomy, 36, 195t

defined, 32

humans are wired for autonomous behavior, 34–35

importance, 32–34

at Percolab, xii, 38, 150

ways to practice, 33–53

Avoiding conflict, 184

Bookkeeping, 111–112

Boundaries, stating your, 37

Budgets, 111–112

Buffer (company), 115

Buurtzorg, 14

Centeredness, 172

being centered and helping one another be centered, 172–175

Check-in questions, 76–78, 168–169

Check-ins, 57

benefits of, 76–78, 168

checking in before jumping in, 76–79

components of, 77

guidelines for, 77, 79

people naturally check in with purpose all the time, 58

at Percolab, 78

regarding proposals, 217

starting meetings with, 76, 79, 133, 168–169, 197

time needed for, 77, 78

Clarifications (proposals), 213–214

Clarifying questions (proposals), 132, 134

Clarity, finding, 47–48

Clean communication, 181t

“Closed” position, defaulting to a, 101

Co-managed organizations. See also Collective approach

terminology, xiii

Co-managing meetings, 90–92

importance, 73–74

is natural for us, 74–75

using the space to support co-managed meetings, 92–94

Collaboration, 185

Collective accountability, 76. See also Collective responsibility

Collective agenda setting, 75, 84

Collective approach, 11, 27, 46, 63. See also specific topics

to conflict, 185–189

and non-hierarchical learning, 163

what does and does not need to be collective, 125

Collective circle, 189

Collective decision making, 119, 125, 126, 209, 211

Collective determination of metrics and evaluation, 161

Collective inquiry, 189

Collective intelligence, 107, 117, 119, 122

Collective learning, 142

framing feedback as an exploration in, 155

Collective management of team meetings, 76

Collective responsibility, 57. See also Collective accountability; Shared responsibility

Commitments, honoring, 15–16

Communication. See also...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• One: Why Go Horizontal?
• Two: Practicing Is the Path to Mastery
• Three: Autonomy
• Four: Purpose
• Five: Meetings
• Six: Transparency
• Seven: Decision Making
• Eight: Learning and Development
• Nine: Relationships and Conflicts
• Ten: Where Do You Go from Here?
• Appendix: Percolab’s Generative Decision-Making Process
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• About the Author