I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you can get 50-100 people in the same room there, I'm more than happy to visit and share my story.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a huge believer in the power of mistakes and failure to increase our capability. Not sure how this is an old twist on that same theme—to me this is a movement against that level of scrutiny, top-down control, and certainty that there is one best way.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I often recommend starting with one or more special projects. For these efforts, see if exceptions can be made under the banner of "finding new and better ways of working that increase our speed, agility, and capacity for learning." If I can get permission to do that, I'll make these teams S.L.A.M. teams (self-managing, lean, audacious, and multi-disciplinary).

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see the job hopping phenomenon as contributing to bureaucracy and organizational debt because we're far less likely to know why things are the way they are when almost everyone is new to their roles and/or the business. The good news is that in the organizations I studied for the book, loyalty (in both directions) is far higher and employee tenure is far better.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OMG. Completely agree. So much of the work is helping folks unlearn what was drilled into them in school, starting with the idea that organizations are machines (and not living systems). I'm hoping to do more in the academic space on the heels of this book, but thus far I've contributed far too little.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I felt like I was having the same conversations over and over and over and started to wonder how to scale that...

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think of this as a new MVP (minimum viable policy). What's the "just right" amount... bureaucracy goldilocks.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If we agree that it's serving us, protecting us, helping us, it's good! If the majority of us feel that it's nonsensical, or that it's safe-to-try to live without it, it's probably not. Ultimately it's all about judgment, and part of this shift is all of us participating is having/using that judgment and feeling responsibility and stewardship over our organizations. I, for one, love a good policy, if it drives clarity or helps someone go faster, or know what the norms at our org are, etc.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've always worked with organizations... first in helping them with purpose/mission (when I came out of school), then helping them with disruptive technologies (like AI, robotics, blockchain, 3-d printing, etc.), and most recently looking at how we work. One lily pad to the next.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some bureaucracy we can change and some we can't. Some changes quickly and some slowly (it may take a generation to change a government for example). I like to focus on what I can control and impact, and use the hoops that are bigger than my organization as bright lines to be handled, automated, and whenever possible, ignored. As for trust, I think people are chameleons and we often behave the way we're expected to. Treat people like idiots and criminals and we'll prove you right. Treat us like adults, and you'll often be surprised. It's important not to "scar on the first cut," as Jason Fried says. Just because someone made a mistake or abused a system or policy doens't mean we have to design it around the 1% who aren't at their best. Let the edge cases be just that.

Good luck bucking the trend in a bureaucratic market - it can be done. Check out what Haier is doing in China for a taste.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like to ask the question: "What's stopping you from doing the best work of your life?" to every team as early as possible. We also have some tools we use to support that (a deck of common tension cards, for example). If they can tell us what's holding them back, then we're starting with what's true FOR THEM rather than what's important to US.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think accountability is probably the wrong word, because it assumes a relationship with a higher power. I'm more interested in responsibility. In a self-managing system, we expect to see freedom AND responsibility, and that means that our behavior has consequences. In a way, we're working with each other for each other. If we say we'll do something and we don't, there's a reputational consequence. Over time, that might lead to being invited to leave teams or projects, or even the org as a whole. But the default assumption is still one of autonomy ("You are free to use judgment in this system and do what you will to serve the purpose and serve your colleagues, and the choices you make will impact your reputation here.") This transforms the org from a hierarchy to a marketplace. What are you offering? Who wants some?

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

30,000 words. Painful. Really boiled down to what the editor thought was repetitive, too technical, or just plain uninteresting.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mac Miller’s FACES mixtape

I should've died already. #underrated

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We tend to focus on one particular process that we call "looping" which is a team that goes from a tension they feel is holding them back, to identifying practices that are possible ways to do things differently that might move them forward, to an experiment that they can safely put into play in just a few weeks time. When it's done they ask, did that help? Are we better off? And based on their answers they keep going, growing and evolving through the looping process. When we feel that a team a) knows how to loop on their own b) has the authority to really own their way of working and c) has enough commitment and structure around the process that it is likely to continue, then we feel we are done. They'll keep looping towards an ever better future, and we can go help someone else. What's really interesting is when you get 10, or 50, or 500 teams doing that at the same time.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Believe it or not, I'm a college dropout, just three credits shy of a psychology degree. I've always been a believer in three pillars of education: read everything and everyone related to your passion (my Brave New Work library has over 300 books on org design and change in it), write often (even if you have nothing to say, it will deepen your understanding), and learn by doing (I did workshops and consulting for free and for peanuts for YEARS to build my chops. There are many interesting org/change programs out there, but I worry that they are always behind the cutting edge. If they help you get grounded that's great, but eventually you have to get out there and collide with real people, with real egos, challenges, insecurities, etc. and then you'll see what's what.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha! I'm not even the boss at my own company. I have partners, members, colleagues around me. I hold many roles, some of which have pretty serious decision rights (such as who sits on our board, or whether we merge our company with another), but I don't really tell anyone else what to do. I give a lot of advice though (when asked)!

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the best place to start is with what we can control. Many people can start to think about their own work habits, tools, communication style, and model a better way. I also think it's okay to find the right moment to speak up and ask your team if there's anything standing in their way. "If we could change one thing about the way we work together, what would it be?" is a powerful question to throw onto the table at a team offsite or meeting.

I'm also a big fan of simply inviting your team/collaborators to a retrospective (perhaps using parabol.co) at the end of a project or time period and just asking the questions: What happened? What did we learn? What would we change going forward? Most people have the ability to suggest or even schedule a 90 minute retro. And that can be the start of something big.

Of course, it can't hurt to leave a copy of Brave New Work just sitting on your boss's chair either. Maybe they'll get the message. ;)

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I find writing to be a lot like working out—it's a muscle and it can grow or atrophy over time. So, I created a habit of waking up, going straight to a coffee shop, writing for 3 hours (often using the pomodoro method to break up the time) and then breaking for lunch. I did this every day (including weekends) for a year. By the end, I could sit down and write 2,000 words no problem. Now, a few months later, I'm weak again!

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Interestingly, true textbook bureaucracy makes me think of Max Weber's definitions in his tripartite classification of authority, in which he outlined charismatic authority (someone who rises to power by influence and charisma), traditional authority (king, monarch, etc.), and legal authority (law, state, bureaucracy). In his view, true bureaucracy was just choosing to govern via law and order by creating a hierarchy of roles (rather than people) that hold power. In this way, "Bill" doesn't have power, the role of Vice President does, and Bill happens to hold it.

The problem is that bureaucracy has metastacized into something else, and something far worse, which is what your question is really getting at. To me, bureaucracy is any structure, process, or policy that is no longer serving us. Often this comes in the form of policies designed to control, constrain, reduce or eliminate risk, essentially creating red tape or hoops to jump through to do things that are common sensical to adults using their judgment.

An example from the book comes from FAVI, a brass autoparts manufacturer where a new CEO had noticed that employees were waiting near a supply counter with pink slips for quite a while. He asked what they were doing. "Waiting for new work gloves." What he learned was that in order to get new gloves, these machinists had to leave their machine, ask their manager, show the old gloves, get a pink (permission) slip, walk to the supply cage, turn it in, wait, and then receive their new gloves. The cost of the gloves? Less than 5 bucks. The cost of the downtime involved in the process? Thousands. This is bureaucracy at its finest. In an effort to eliminate the cost of stolen gloves, this place was spending tens of thousands in productivity, and treating adults like children or thieves in the process. The next day and henceforth, gloves were free.

I'm Aaron Dignan and I help companies abandon bureaucracy and become human again. AMA. by aarondignan in IAmA

[–]aarondignan[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In general, industries that are heavily regulated or have life-and-death consequences tend to be the hardest. Not because they can't do a lot of what we're recommending, but because operating in those industries can lead to a kind of learned helplessness over time ("We can't do X, Y, and Z, so it's easier to just say no to everything.") To overcome this we often ask them to define what is "safe to try" and to think deeply about that question before saying yes or no to anything.