Modern Organizations and Leadership

1. Modern Orgs &
Leadership

2. Modern Orgs

3. Modern Orgs

4. Modern Army

5. Why
• High uncertainty of user needs, competition,
business model, …
• Low entry barriers for creating new
businesses leading to permanent disruption
• Industrial era required mass production,
compliance, consistency, … (factory model)
• Information era requires innovation,
creativity, agility, initiative, … (dynamic
network model)

6. Org Innovation
• Google
• Facebook
• Netflix
• Valve
• Mozilla
• Medium
• Spotify

7. Building Block
• Self-organizing systems emerge and converge
but are not structureless
• Fundamental building block of a modern org is
a self-organized team
• This also applies to leadership (leadership team
instead of individual leader)
• An individual can belong to more than 1 team

8. Scaling
• Forget hierarchies, think communication
networks
• Group together teams to maximize purpose,
mastery, autonomy
• Organize communication flows between teams,
groups of teams, …
• Like in a living organism, the structure is not
rigid and evolves over time to adapt to the
context

9. Network of Teams

10. Teams @ Spotify
• Teams: squads, chapters, POCLAC, Trio, …
• Groups of teams: alliances, tribes, guilds,
Moments program, …
• Teams are generally long-lived
• Groups of teams can be long-lived (alliances,
tribes, guilds) or short-lived (Moments program,
...)

11. Alignment Autonomy
False dichotomy!
Do what I say! Do what you want!
Autonomy vs Alignment

12. Alignment
Autonomy
Entrepreneurial
organization
Chaotic
culture
Innovative
organization
Collaborative
culture
Authoritative
organization
Conformist
culture
"We need to get faster, because XYZ"
"Therefore you need to implement
Continuous Delivery"
"We need to get faster, because XYZ"
"Now, YOU figure out How."
(I hope they
will get faster
soon)Micromanaging
organization
Indifferent
culture
Autonomy + Alignment

13. Modern Leadership
• Leader as a gardener, not as a commander
• Puts in place a system that leads to self-
organization
• Drives consensus to define directions
• Provides context (why, constraints, …)
• Supports teams and individuals in their mission
(servant leadership model)

14. Leader Skills
• Understanding of complex systems,
emergence, self-organization, queuing theory,
...
• Knowledge of Lean, Agile, …
• Understanding of modern human psychology,
motivation factors, …
• Coaching, teaching, mentoring skills

15. References
• The Last Monarchy
http://www.parc.com/event/1319/last-monarchy.html
• Mission Command
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Command,
https://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/adrp6_0.pdf
• Minimum Viable Bureaucracy
https://air.mozilla.org/minimum-viable-bureaucracy/
• Drive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
• Project 10X http://www.mixprize.org/hack/project-10x-
growing-dna-21st-century-leadership-
organizations?challenge=14226

16. References
• Recent History of Management:
http://www.slideshare.net/krivitsky/the-recent-history-of-
management
• Role of Leadership:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypEMdjslEOI
• Netflix Culture Deck:
http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664
• Scaling Agile @ Spotify:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1018963/Articles/Spotif
yScaling.pdf
• Power of Networks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0LVSIwifpI

17. References
• Leadership At All Levels:
https://vimeo.com/115962903
• Team of teams: http://www.amazon.com/Team-
Teams-Rules-Engagement-Complex/dp/1591847486/