Accelerating our Collaboration During Times of Separation to Reinvent Our Workplaces

Written by #ebbfmember Natasha Naderi

Organizational pioneers from all parts of the world are building new kinds of organizations — more soulful workplaces, that unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of everyone, allowing for emergence of innovations at the edges of the organization.

I’m one of the crazy ones who left the security of my position in a traditional organization 1.5 years ago, in order to help build new ones. Shortly after beginning my adventure, I was tightly locked down in Beijing, China as the global pandemic began. Very quickly, the whole world joined us and we were all confined to the corners of our homes. At the same time, the virtual world of global connection was accelerating behind the scenes.

At the start of the lockdown I received a note from someone in Germany, whom I’ve only met online, Timm Urshinger with LIVEsciences. He wanted to know if I’d like to collaborate on creating a virtual conference where storytellers share first-hand experiences of their work in creating these new kinds of organizations. With only 6 weeks, a group of strangers from across the globe, sharing the same passion, created a virtual event where 280+ participants from over 40 countries came together to learn with 30+ storytellers, through stories, discussions, and open-space co-creation sessions. That was in July 2020. [more info on the Teal Around The World event here]

Why the Work to Reinvent Organizations is Accelerating

Humanity has been experiencing dramatic changes over the past century, which have rapidly progressed over the past few years. We have moved from a homogenous society to one that is global and diverse; from a society where few have information, to one where many are informed and connected; and from a simple and predictable world, to one that is highly complex. And, with the onslaught of COVID19, much of the workforce is working now remotely with a high degree of self-management.

Yet our management playbook has remained largely the same. We are taught in management schools that organizations can be controlled like machines and that success comes through tightly controlled strategies driven from the top and cascaded through organizational layers. Yet, we know from research of radically successful organizations, that organizations are complex adaptive systems and that growth is limited when we try to control them. What is more effective is nurturing organizations as living entities, and developing systems and practices that maximize self-management, enabling innovation and value creation through all parts of the organization.

In order to quickly evolve our workplaces to meet the needs of a complex, illuminated and more conscious age, a global workplace revolution has begun and is showing up with many different names — Humanocracy, Conscious Capitalism, Teal, Agile, Rendanheyi, and more. All of these movements are shifting organizations to a place where:

• Everyone is powerful and can take ownership of their work.
• Greater customer value is created through market-driven teams that are agile, entrepreneurial, and innovative.
• Organizations are characterized by greater social justice and equity in distribution of wealth.
• Organizations have a greater impact on the collective welfare of humanity.

#ebbfmembers at the Forefront

Many #ebbfmembers are at the forefront of pioneering these new forms of organizations. Here are two of them who will be sharing their stories at the next Teal Around the World Festival.

Todd Khozein, Co-CEO of #Bcorp Second Muse

SecondMuse is an impact and innovation company building resilient economies by supporting and investing in entrepreneurs and the ecosystems around them. The company has designed and implemented programs on all 7 continents with over 600 organizations such as NASA, The World Bank, Nike, USAID, IKEA, and The Rockefeller Foundation.

SecondMuse’s success is driven by the belief that economic and social systems can be built inclusively and not at the expense of human dignity or the health of the planet. Todd will be sharing about Second Muse’s efforts in “Building Economies of the Future.”

Mika Korhonen, Co-Founder of Discover Street.

What happens when you refuse to make a business plan and escape all VC conversations? Make every new member a equal partner? Contribute for free? Mika tells stories about radical trust, all-in impact attitude from the world where values are alive in every day action, love extends to all stakeholders and world is being made a better place.

Discovery Street, based in Finland, was born out of belief that it is the role of business to serve humanity, not the other way around. In the core of the company is impact: eight hard-core professionals who have escaped their corporate jobs to create a positive impact to society. Instead of playing the games of power, social status and wealth creation, they are creating new game, which is based on human values.

[You can read more about Mika and Discovery Street’s unconventional approach in this other article]

Accelerating Our Collaboration

A global network, with 5 people at the core, and 900+ now in the larger Teal Network are continuing to deepen collaboration and expansion of this work through monthly meet-ups and regular “Festivals”.

At our next Teal Around the World Festival, March 4–5 2021, we will listen to 20–30 from places like China, US, India, Europe, and South America and engage in meaningful conversations around how to expand these practices. We’ll also be engaging in co-creation and evolving these practices through open-space forums, as well as finding accelerate our impact through collaboration and building communities across borders.

Many more incredible speakers will be there too, including some of the most influential self-management and teal pioneers such as Frederic Laloux, Ricardo Semler, and Jos de Blok.

Interested?

You are welcome to join our next Teal Around the World Festival, 4–5th March 2021, starting from 9 AM CET and running nonstop for 24-hours across all timezones.

This is a purely not-for-profit event, organized by a diverse group of teal practitioners around the world, who are simply passionate about connecting teal communities beyond borders to exchange best practices and to learn from each other’s experiences to bring about positive change in organizations.

You are also welcome to join The Teal Network on LinkedIn to stay connected and participate in regular Global Teal Meet Ups

Get your ticket here: Teal Around the World 2021 https://www.tealaroundtheworld.com/

Early Bird tickets on sale through January 31, 2021.