What happens when an organisation commits itself to 'humanity above bureaucracy'? Bureaucracy and traditional power structures hinder organisations from harnessing the power of their employees, their intelligence, ideas and passions. New models seem necessary to build a truly human organisation, one that balances scale and speed, efficiency and creativity, control and experimentation.

1. Tom Foster, September 2021
Humanity over Bureaucracy
Resigned, Renewed, Reborn.

3. Frederick Winslow Taylor

4. Frederick Winslow Taylor
“It is only through the enforced standardisation of
methods, enforced adoption of the best implements
and working conditions, and enforced co-operation that
this faster work can be assured.”

6. Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini - Humanocracy
“Creating organisations that allow human beings to do their best
work, unfettered by the shackles of bureaucracy”
“Redesign the work environments so that they elicit the everyday
genius of every human being.”

10. • < 1/4 Believed they were expected to be
innovative in their job
• < 1/5 Felt their opinions mattered at work
Some numbers
Ranking of role according to the original thought they require:
• CEO - 72%
• Bank Teller - 31%
• 70% Jobs less than 50% - 100 million workers not expected to exercise creativity.

11. Average age an
S&P 500 company
60 <20 years
550 Billion spent by
US Public companies
on restructuring.

12. “Our real villains are things like
bureaucracy, complacency, a
lack of speed or a lack of
passion.”
Doug McMillon, CEO Wallmart

13. Labs
“Despite popularity , there is little evidence these creative outposts deliver significant
returns … they are no substitute for a deeply embedded capacity to continually reinvent
the core business.”

14. John W Gardner

15. John W Gardner
“What may be most in need of innovation is the corporation itself.
Perhaps what every corporation (and every other organisation)
needs is a Department of Continuous Renewal that would view the
whole organisation as a system in need of continuing innovation.”

17. Service Oriented
Decision Making
mission:

18. Human Insights
Service
Carefully curate and
distribute information
bringing us all closer to
the customer and each-
other.
Service
Architecture
Map to understand the
services offered and situate
everyone
Service
Outcomes
A framework to measure the
health of the services
Service
Prototyping
A way to check the value and
viability of ideas by bringing
them to life
Disengagement from
the customer
Disengagement from
each other
Myopic measurement
divides without clear
overall Outcomes
Let great ideas rise to
the top with prototyping
and phased funding

20. “Whatever your treasure is,
there lies your heart.”
1. Purpose

21. Gardening
not Crafting
2. Leadership
Austrian economist Fredrich Hayek

22. 3. Learning
Deeper Learning
Thinking Doing
Action that serves
the whole
Increasing awareness
of the whole
Reactive Learning
Thinking Doing
Re-enacting
habits
Downloading mental
models
Peter Senge, author of Presence

23. 4. Dialogue

24. 5. Empowerment

25. References
Videos
• Dan Pink at the RSA -
https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=QQPCbXVXQWI
• People Weavers with
David Brooks:
https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=VumCfoUU6fw
Summary
1. Purpose 2. Leadership 3. Learning 4. Dialogue 5. Empowerment
Articles
• Responsible versus Irresponsible Dissent 1969, John W Gardner -
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.164.3878.379
• 2019 Gallup Great Jobs Survey on the US -
https://www.gallup.com/analytics/268787/gallup-global-great-jobs-
briefing-2019.aspx
• People Weavers Manifesto - https://weareweavers.org/wp-
content/uploads/2020/01/Weave-Relationalist-Manifesto.pdf
Reading
• Humanocracy - Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini
• Self Renewal - John W Gardner
• Presence - Peter Senge
• Silos - Gillian Tett
• AnthroVision - Gillian Tett
• Leading with Wisdom - Mark Strom