RECAP: The rise of self-managed organizations at IDS2020

Posted by ET Group on February 18, 2020

With our world rapidly evolving, the way we work together is beginning to fail us. We are encountering complex challenges that require new ways of working, innovating, and designing solutions.

Traditional hierarchical paradigms were designed for organizations of the past, born during the industrial revolution. Today, they are still the most predominant view of business leaders around the globe. The rapid advancement of our society, culture, and technology has caused massive shifts for how new generations of workers want and need to work together.

“I was incredibly disillusioned with corporations and having worked in organizations that stifled my own creativity and others, I said there has to be a different way. I began collecting different practices and ways of working that could help us.”

Dirk Propfe, CEO, ET Group

Progressive business leaders have recognized this reality and have discovered that creating networks of self-managed teams may hold the answer to unlocking the potential that helps us to design a better future.

ET Group has been on a journey adopting self-management and new ways of working for the last 3 years. During this time we removed a traditional power hierarchy and implemented self-managed practices, processes, and principles that radically changed the way our company works together.

What happened at IDS2020?

https://youtu.be/XkVbk21jTWA

In January, we were invited by the Interior Design Show 2020 to bring together a Future of Work panel with 5 business leaders whose organizations are on the journey of self-management.

They shared key insights that can help organizations shift the way they’re working along with helping them understand why their organizations are making the move, how they’re bringing the concept to life, and the impact it creates on design and innovation.

We are sharing the 1 hour recording of the IDS2020 panel in hopes that the insights can inspire your organization to begin a journey of its own.

“The biggest shift from a traditional organization to a self managed organisation is that we don’t have a person boss. Instead there is a purpose boss. For The Moment our purpose is to empower people to lead change and co-create a thriving human future. That is a big purpose but as long as we are working towards, we maintain alignment.”

Erika Bailey, Innovation Designer, The Moment

Who are the panelists?

From Left to Right: Peter Aprile (Counter Tax Lawyers), Joyce Zoka (Counter Tax Lawyers), Erika Bailey (The Moment), Dirk Propfe (ET Group), Brent Lowe (Brent Lowe)

The panelists are part of organizations that are on the journey of self-management. They are passionate about the future of work, new ways of working, and designing their organizations to enable the highest potential of people.