The Colors of Teal
This type of organization is known for its primitive understanding of power, often with one 'chief' and subordinate masses
What is red?
The number of meetings held typically grows as organizations develop. At the Teal stage, the volume of meetings does this.
What is 📉 declines?
The founder of this famous Teal manufacturer titled his autobiography "Let My People Go Surfing," which underscores the company's commitment to it's evolutionary purpose of enjoying and protecting the natural environment.
What is Patagonia?
The dominant metaphor for this type of organization is that of an army.
What is Amber?
Almost all Teal organizations use this type of process, where any person can make any decision after touching base with 1) everyone who will be meaningfully affected, and 2) people with expertise in the matter.
What is the Advice Process?
AES, the global energy company, came up with the “80-20 rule”, which means this.
What is every person working at AES, from cleaning staff to engineer, was expected to spend on average 80 percent of their time on their primary role and the other 20 percent on one or more of the many task forces?
We're evolving! The Organization as a machine is the dominant metaphor for this paradigm. Most large corporations operate from this paradigm today.
What is orange?
In self-managing organisations, one-on-one discussion, mediation by a peer, and mediation by a panel are all mechanisms for this teal practice.
What is conflict resolution?
At Buurtzorg, the Dutch nursing non-profit, all independent teams engage in Teal practices in regards to information flow, which involves what tools?
What is the company's intranet, where all data concerning performance of all the teams is shared. If there is an need for a decision, the request is posted on the intranet. Teams can see every month how their productivity compares to that of other teams. The data of other teams is not anonymized or averaged out. Employees are trusted to handle the positive and negative impacts of information with integrity.
Family is the dominant metaphor for this paradigm -- it strives for harmony, tolerance and equality. While retaining a pyramidal structure.
What is green?
Teal organizations' decision-making and actions are driven by a desire to fulfill this, which evolves over time and which is distinct from maximizing profits or beating the competition.
What is evolutionary purpose?
FAVI, the French automobile parts manufacturer radically re-organized to get rid of middle management and implement these types of Teal Organizational Structures.
What are self-organized teams, who do their own hiring, purchasing, planning, and scheduling?
When applied to organizations, this paradigm encourages organizations to be characterized by self-organization and self-management.
What is teal?
THIS may sound appealing when decisions need to be made, but it's not always the most effective. Instead, in the teal advice process, power and responsibility rest with the decision-maker.
What is consensus?
Morning Star, the California tomato agri-business, trusts team members to resolve internal conflicts. In the event it's necessary, mediators may be called in for support, but they cannot do this.
What is imposing a resolution from above?
Fun Fact: Morning Star has two values that guide their internal culture at the company: individuals should never use force against other people and they should honor their commitments.