In his book Reinventing Organizations, Frederic Laloux describes the “Teal Organization” model. Teal organizations have an evolutionary purpose, self-managing teams with little or no organizational hierarchy, and individuals who bring their whole person to work rather than putting on a work face when leaving the house. Zappos is the most talked about organization attempting a transition to Teal. Bob Payne describes how his organization is becoming a Teal Organization. Since the concept of Teal is not a specific recipe, they are basing their transition on practices gleaned from other organizations and their history of helping truly agile organizations. LitheSpeed is starting the path of delegating most authority to team members including profit sharing and hiring decisions, using a Spotify Tribe model and extreme transparency, implementing a simple set of peer-based operating procedures, and deemphasizing titles. Bob shares lessons on building the organization, culture, and systems to support the transition. Although it’s early in the journey and the road is sometimes rough, Bob is excited about the prospect of a Teal future.

1. AT7
Session
6/9/16 11:30 AM
Disrupting Ourselves: Moving to a"Teal
Organization" Model
Presented by:
Bob Payne
LitheSpeed
Brought to you by:
350 Corporate Way, Suite 400, Orange Park, FL 32073
888---268---8770 ·· 904---278---0524 - info@techwell.com - http://www.techwell.com/

2. Bob Payne
LitheSpeed
Bob Payne is a change agent at LitheSpeed. As an early adopter of Extreme
Programming, Scrum, and SAFe, he has worked exclusively as a lean and agile
transformation leader since 1999. Bob hosts the Agile Toolkit podcast and has
produced more than 170 podcasts, recording a variety of industry leaders and
agile practitioners. His consulting and training style is built on years of
experience, and having grown up working in his family's restaurant, you can
expect a blend of technical excellence and customer service. Because of Bob's
interest in philanthropy, he founded the AgileDC conference, a “for-benefit”
event put on by volunteers from the agile community with proceeds going to
charity. Contact Bob to get involved with AgileDC.

3. Disrupting Ourselves
Moving to a Teal Organizational
Model
Bob Payne
LitheSpeed LLC

4. Our Mission
LitheSpeed's mission is to
make peoples' work more
produc8ve, valued and
fulfilling.

5. Jean Tabaka
Jean did all of those
things all of the
8me.
Glad I knew her…
You should look her
up if you did not
know here.
My last chat with
her was about Teal.
Wish I had spent
that 8me geHng to
know her even
beIer

6. What is Teal

7. In times of change learners
inherit the earth; while the
learned find themselves
beautifully equipped to deal
with a world that no longer
exists.
Eric Hoffer

8. Peter Greene
6

9. Laloux’s Organiza-onal Levels
Model Key Breakthroughs
TEAL
Evolu8onary
Self Management, Wholeness,
Evolu-onary Purpose
GREEN
Culture Driven Organiza8ons
Empowerment, Value Driven
Culture, Stakeholder Model
ORANGE
Large Corpora8ons, Charter
Schools
Innova8on, Accountability,
Meritocracy
AMBER
Governments, Churches, Public
Schools
Formal Roles, Hierarchies,
Processes
RED
Gangs, Mafias, Mercenaries
Division of Labor, Command
Authority
Laloux Model from Reinven&ng Organiza&ons, Image from Philippe Bailleur 7

10. Our Journey

11. Structure
Self
Organized &
Empowered
Teams
Formal Hierarchies

12. Welcome to Flatland
Source: Valve Employee Handbook
No Managers: Founders & ???@LitheSpeed

13. Empowerment through Talent Development
Decentralize authority for
freedom
Focus on helping raise
team capability through
talent development
Help build a culture of
con-nuous improvement
11
Empowerment = Freedom * Capability
Situa8onal Leadership® – Paul Hershey and Ken Blanchard
MorningStar

14. Tribes: Self Organizing Units
Source: hAp://www.slideshare.net/ColomboCampsCommunity/what-is-an-agile-tester-henrik-kniberg
Tribe Structure
We use self organizing tribes as our internal structure. They are a mix of
delivery and opera8ons. We oen need to collaborate between tribes to get
things done. Growing new tribes has been challenging. Minimum 3 people and
a mix of delivery and opera8ons
TCQ – Tribe Called Quest Fresh Tribe Governance
Each Tribe decides how it will
run internally. TCQ has no
lead, since I stepped down.
Fresh operates more Scrum
like with a Product Owner
Two Feet
You can move to another tribe
or start your own if you want

15. People Operations
Recruiting,
evaluation,
compensation via peer
based approach
Recruiting through HR,
evaluations and
compensation via
manager
Hiring through layered
system, compensation
set via policy

16. Tribes Hire/Tribes Fire
On Boarding
We believe that Hiring is the most important thing we can do. Tribes differ in
their hiring strategy but understand that Great People will do great things
and bad fit people will kill morale, cause drama and cost money. Founders are
asked but do not override decisions. Tribes Hire Locally but we need to go to
founders for Salary. We s8ll struggle a bit with effec8ve onboarding as there
is no defined HR role to focus on this.
Firing
Since the tribes hire we have started to have
people step up and aer advisement from
other employees ask people to leave the
organiza8on. We usually give them the choice
of an exit package or an ac8ve improvement
plan to become effec8ve with a 8me limit. This
process is draining and we are concentra8ng
on Hiring.

17. hUp://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/why-were-leYng-virgin-staff-take-as-much-holiday-as-they-want
Open Schedule and Slack Time
Open Work Schedule
Be effec8ve with the work that needs to get done and the clients and you
only need to inform your tribe that you will not be in. No set policy and
people typically take the 8me they need to do the job they need to do.
Slack
Con8nuing to innovate is
important and knowledge
workers are in the best posi8on
to innovate. We encourage
people to take slack 8me and
have ac8ve innova8on plaborms
to par8cipate in.
Focus/Buffer/Free

18. Fair Market Salary
Core wages should be fair for the market; basic financial security provides
personal safety and allows for produc8ve risk-taking. We have a wider range
from Training Opera8ons to Trainers and Consultants. We are working
towards Open and Team set Salaries in the Future.
Salary Mobility
We are working on a system to allow people to move up/down in salary
based on roles, effec8veness and how much they want to work.
Profit Share
We let the teams determine the split for
profit Share on a quarterly basis. We
have de-linked profit share from any
performance evalua8on and are
experimen8ng with different methods to
distribute.
Salary and Profit Share

19. Operations
Internal
process for
decisions &
conflict
resolution
Most decisions &
conflicts resolved
through hierarchy

20. Decisions, Conflict, Feedback
Feedback
We are expected to seek/give immediate feedback. One 8me a quarter we do
something to expressly get/give feedback. Surveys some8me, Face 2 Face other
8mes. We are experimen8ng and working on geHng this right.
Decisions
We use the Advisement Process within
the organiza8on. You can make any
decision as long as you have sought
advice from anyone that will be affected.
You do not need to follow the advise.
Conflict
We are not your parents, Work it out or
ask for help.

21. Innova8on, Sustainment, Financials
Sustainment
The billable folks need to generate enough money to keep the lights on. We
use average targets across the company. This has been perceived as Orange.
Financials
We are moving to transparent financials across the company so that people
can Self Manage the Business side. Many Agile Trainers/Coaches have not run
businesses so this is an area of skill development
Innova-on
Innova8on is crucial to keep our products
fresh and to achieve our Evolu8onary
purpose. Balancing billability vs. innova-on
is tough and made tougher without set goals.

22. Where We Are Now

23. Quick Start…Then Work
Months
Feeling Teal
Feeling
Confident
The Glow
Fades
The Climb
Out
Next
Rough
Patch
The Road Ahead
Looks Teal

24. What will you do?
The Road Ahead
Looks Teal

25. 23
Contact Me for Further Information
Bob Payne
Bob.Payne@LitheSpeed.com
@agiletoolkit, @lithespeed
Chair AgileDC
AgileToolkit Podcast
hIp://agiletoolkit.libsyn.com
On the Web:
hIp://www.lithespeed.com
hIp://agileleadershipacademy.com