In this article, I argue that there is a need to explore new and more regenerative and liberating forms of organisation. I provide a concrete method for driving this transformation towards a regenerative organisation. Additionally, I offer my insights into the potential effects that will be achieved through transforming your organisation.
I begin with the latter.
The potential of creating a regenerative organisation, unleashing expertise and revitalizing life within the organisation is immense. Both on a human and economic level.
My proposition is that the concrete effects of a regenerative organisation can be experienced in relation to the following:
• Expertise within your organisation will be more liberated and you will be better equipped to handle the immense complexity of knowledge that is increasingly challenging many businesses.
• Your organisation will be life-giving and create well-being in each employee’s (work-) life, and over time, you will see the effect in terms of reduced stress and dissatisfaction among your employees.
• Job enjoyment and productivity among employees will measurably increase.
• You will become an attractive workplace and find it easier to attract and recruit new employees.
• Your organisation will become more, innovative and development focused.
• Leadership roles will change. Your leadership focus will shift away from technical aspects and more towards strategic and personal leadership.
• The organisation will experience an entirely new cohesion—both internally and externally towards the outside world.
Those of you who manage to complete the transformation within the coming year will have a fantastic opportunity to brand yourselves as pioneers in relations to developing the future regenerative and liberating organisations.
In fact, my assertion is that your organisation will not exist—or at the very least, will face significant challenges in attracting new employees—if you fail to transform your organisation and make it regenerative.
You might be thinking: “Why should we start talking about regenerative organisations? And is there even a need for new organisational forms?”
The short answer is: yes, there is a significant need because there are issues with the current organisational forms. And regenerative organisations can be part of the solution.
We are experiencing a dramatically increasing complexity of knowledge
The development of new knowledge is occurring exponentially in recent years. Indeed, one might almost speak of a knowledge explosion. And many organisations are grappling on a daily basis with an utterly staggering complexity of knowledge.
This has been a premise for the latest many years of organisational development initiatives. Organisations have implemented a myriad of quality control and reporting systems, policies, workflow descriptions, templates, structures and management and organisational hierarchies.
Thus, organisations have consciously and unconsciously dealt with the increasing complexity through structure and systems.
We have managed the complexity against a sense of knowing better
It is a bit odd, because we know from the research of complex systems that they cannot be controlled/managed. They can only be managed appropriately by maintaining a suitable balance between structure and chaos.
We know that if one over structures a complex system, it becomes rigid.
At the same time, both research in complex systems and mathematics affirm: A system with more than two living organisms is a complex system.
Thus, the vast majority of our organisations can be considered complex systems to a great extent. So, is it not a bit absurd that we try to control and manage them as we have done for decades?
The consequence is stress and dissatisfaction – the solution is to recreate life
Our handling of complexity has made our organisations intricate, disconnected, over-structured and rigid.
Life in organisations, seen as complex ecosystems, is greatly inhibited.
The consequence can be clearly seen in stress statistics and organisational well-being surveys.
The statistics and surveys show overwhelmingly poor figures. Many even speak of a “stress and dissatisfaction epidemic”. But what should we do then to address the poor figures and help the employees?
One thing is certain: we need to recreate life in the organisations. We need to reinvent the organisations of the future so that organising, leadership, cooperation and interaction forms are life-giving and liberating. They should possess the ability to unleash the professional and human potential of employees – thereby preventing stress and dissatisfaction.
And this is where the regenerative comes into play.
What is the regenerative?
The concept of regenerative originates from nature’s ecosystems. They are regenerative, constantly renewing and revitalizing themselves over time. This means concretely that they are always in a process where something takes place, and what remains constantly adapts and becomes more viable. Ecosystems in nature thereby create the conditions for life and for life to constantly evolve and adapt.
This principle – of creating the conditions for life and for life to constantly evolve and unfold – is one of the two fundamental principles in my approach to working with the regenerative organisation.
The second fundamental principle is also drawn from nature’s ecosystems. Here, the elements are interconnected, they influence each other and play together. In understanding the development and living conditions of an element, it will never be considered in isolation, but always as part of the overall ecosystem. Everything is connected and should be understood as part of a larger whole.
This principle applies both to the work of leadership and the development of individual employees as well as the development of the organisation – both internally and externally. The elements are a part of a much larger ecosystem, and all elements are interconnected.
Thus, it is my experience that the two regenerative principles are crucial guideposts in the re-creation of life in organisations:
You must create the conditions for life and for life to constantly evolve and unfold.
You must create interconnectedness and always work with the individual elements as part of a larger whole (a larger ecosystem).
The path to the regenerative organisation goes through liberation
At Promentum, we support our clients in addressing the above challenges.
We do this in transformation processes, where we together attempt to re-establish life in the organisation. This happens by rewilding the organisation. That is, breaking down structures and systems that inhibit the organisation’s natural life and limit employees’ professional development. By liberating employees professionally and by restoring the organisation’s connectedness both internally and externally. This happens by, throughout the organisational development process, focusing on implementing everyday practices that support life and flow in the organisation.
5 important focus areas in the concrete work of developing a liberating and more regenerative organisation
Promentum’s work on establishing regenerative organisations typically focuses on 5 key areas:
- Create meaning and identity through the organisation’s mission
- Strengthen community and connectedness – internally and externally
- Rewild the organisation
- Liberate the employees
- Create an ad hoc organisation around the organisation’s expertise
In the following, I will elaborate on each point somewhat.
Create meaning and identity through the organisation’s mission
It is crucial that the liberating organisation possesses a clear, guiding and meaning-making collective mission. A distinct collective mission should contribute to establishing identity, community and direction within a liberating culture.
It should function as the lighthouse shining in the night, ensuring that the ships do not veer off course.
The collective mission
I once heard about a cleaning assistent at a hospital who, when asked about his work, replied that he was “saving lives.” Initially an unexpected answer, but an excellent example of the importance of a clear and meaning-making collective mission. My presumption is that the hospital’s overarching mission is to save lives. And since the mission is both meaning-making and guiding at all levels, the cleaning assistent can suddenly see himself working for a meaningful purpose. Moreover, as several patients die in hospitals due to hygiene issues, his work is highly important in relation to the mission.
If we liberate employees and lack a common mission, as leaders, we risk creating a situation where the employee either lacks real opportunities to unfold their potential and adequately utilize their expertise because there is a lack of direction and purpose. Or a situation where the employee, in the absence of a common direction, allows personal interests to guide the direction of their professional work. In both cases, the result will be that the employee becomes less value-creating in relation to the common good.
The collective mission should be meaning-making, guiding, and serve as a value compass for employees in their professionally liberated everyday lives.
Strengthening fellowship and connectivity – internally and externally
Fellowship and connectivity are the foundation of a liberating organisation.
In my work with liberation, I often experience fundamentally different understandings of the concept of “freedom.” Therefore, it is important to be very explicit about my approach to the word and what it means to be free.
In modern everyday language, freedom is often understood as “free from”: one is a self-realizing free bird who has no obligations to anyone. But in my view, this is a modern and misunderstood interpretation of the word free.
Looking at the origin of the word, it is connected to “kinsman” which is an old word for clan member. And because the frænden were protected by the clan, being kinsman was the same as being free. One was “free to” do things because the fellowship had one’s back. With that knowledge in mind, one can only be free if one is a part of a fellowship, as it is the fellowship that sets you free. And it is a mutual freedom because as a part of the fellowship, you also commit to setting the other/the others free.
A liberating organisation must therefore be able to create a strong and binding fellowship capable of setting its members free. A community where employees are connected and have each other’s backs. However, it is not enough to only work with connectivity and community internally within the organisation.
Create fellowship and connectivity in the world
When recreating a vibrant organisation, it is also necessary to establish community and connectivity externally in relation to customers, competitors, society and the world.
Reconnecting with external ecosystems often requires a significant mental quantum leap because the tendency to isolate oneself is an integral part of many organisations’ current DNA. They are closed off and detached from the outside world and they are “afraid” of competitors and customers, who are thus only engaged after careful strategic considerations.
A vibrant organisation is open, believing in collaboration over competition, and the separation between the organisation and its surroundings is much more dynamic and fluid.
Re-wild the organisation
We need to re-wild the organisation’s ecosystems. Remove and dismantle structures, hierarchies, and control systems that destroy or inhibit the flourishing and development of life within the organisation.
In this breakdown/liberation process, inspiration from nature is important. Our traditional organisations resemble meticulously manicured gardens far too much, where, in a desire to control life, we have tamed and eradicated 98% of all living things with order, systems, roundup and tile corridors.
As previously described, we have inhibited life in organisations through recruitment systems, personnel policies, quality assurance systems, hierarchies, codes of conduct, bureaucracy, hierarchical leadership culture, etc.
Despite knowing from research that complex systems like our organisations are unpredictable and CANNOT be controlled. Establishing a liberating regenerative organisation is about utilizing this knowledge. It’s about removing control systems and allowing life to re-establish itself.
About making the organisations alive – and therefore making them suitable for humans
In the concrete work of re-wilding organisations, at Promentum, we work on establishing life-giving everyday practices that can replace traditional structures and reporting systems.
The new everyday practices are created together with all relevant professionals and stakeholders in a co-creative development process heavily inspired by design thinking.
The process focuses on how to create life-giving everyday practices that support:
• Professionalism can remain in flow and is not constrained by silos or organisational boundaries (therefore, that professional solutions can extend beyond the organisation where possible)
• Those with the necessary knowledge have the task and the professional decision-making authority
• Trust rather than control
• Ensuring high autonomy in employees’ work
• Avoiding inappropriate, hierarchically dependent bottlenecks
• That the organisations everyday practices make sense and are motivating for the relevant employees
• The organisations every day practices supports the individual employee’s flow in their work
Liberate the employees
The current complexity of knowledge and interdisciplinary knowledge means that many tasks are only properly solved if the organisation’s (internal and external) expertise is brought into play in an organisational co-creation process.
This process must in no way be hindered/destroyed by a management hierarchy where the leader becomes a bottleneck and a professional filter. This kills professionalism, employee engagement, and life in the organisation in general.
If we are to recreate life in the organisation, we must liberate the employees’ professional work. This is done by redefining roles and responsibilities in the organisation.
In a liberating organisation, it is the employees with the expertise who have “it.” They are the ones driving the tasks and have the professional decision-making authority.
Establish an ad hoc-like organisation around the organisation’s expertise
The goal of liberating employees is partly to create flow and synergy in the organisation’s expertise and partly to create flow in the daily life of each employee.
Regarding the desired flow, liberating employees alone is not sufficient. The organisation around the organisation’s expertise and task execution must also support both professional and personal flow and accommodate knowledge complexity. Therefore, it is important that the liberating organisation adopts an ad hoc-like organisation around expertise and task execution.
The ad hoc- organisation should ensure that all complex tasks are resolved by temporary/dynamic professional networks that continuously connect and disconnect expertise and professionals according to the task’s requirements.
Other important elements to focus on if you are to succeed in creating a more regenerative and liberating organisation
In this article, I have focused on organisational measures that can support the revival of life in the organisation. Measures that, in my opinion, are important when establishing a more regenerative and liberating organisation.
In addition to the discussed organisational elements, there are, of course, many elements of a more cultural or psychological nature. There has not been space to go through these elements in this text. However, they are 100% crucial in succeeding with the establishment of a regenerative and liberating organisation. These include, for example:
• A trust-based culture
• Establishment of an appropriate culture around mistakes
• Establishment of psychological safety across the organisation’s ecosystems – internally and externally
• The feeling of proximity and inclusion
• A playful and improvisational culture
• An inherent “sense and respond” approach – both among employees and leaders
Conclusion
It is my experience that the fundamental elements that are revived when organisations begin to work on developing a regenerative and liberating organisation are trust, belief and equality.
In some way, these fantastic elements emerge from the life-giving processes and end up permeating the entire organisation. And with a magic spell of magic, the organisation comes to life.
