In the book reinventing organisations, Frederic Laloux recounts the history of how people have worked together in organisations.

He proposed different paradigms, each with their own colour and characteristics.

Red

The metaphor of the wolf pack is useful when describing the red paradigm as people would organise into tribes with a powerful leader who inspires fear with the group's enemies and compliance within the group. This paradigm is most useful in Chaos where the powerful leader might be the only reason the group survives.

The breakthrough ideas command authority where a leader sets a direction and people follow allowing them to work towards a common goal and the division of labour where people specialise in a specific type of work that benefits the overall group

The main limitation for red organisations is that they are shortsighted which is required to survive the chaos

Guiding Metaphor: Wolf Pack

Defining Characteristic: Powerful Leader

Breakthrough Ideas: Command Authority and division of labour

Example organisations: Mafia, street gangs and tribal militia

Limitation: Shortsightedness

Amber

These organisations evolved as organisations in Red which are fear-based were not able to have long term success. Amber emerged as hierarchical patterns (Roman Army or Catholic Church) enabled the focus on long term goals which is only possible with stable leadership. A strict hierarchical structure leads to stability and exerts control over lower levels of the hierarchy.

Guiding Metaphor: Army

Defining Characteristic: Strict Hierarchical Structure

Breakthrough Ideas: Long term focus, Strong Processes, Formal Roles

Example organisations: Public Schools (USA), Governments, Traditional Churches

Limitation: When conditions change which require new approaches

Orange

This paradigm evolved when Amber organisations were not able to adapt to changing conditions.

Orange emerged in the age of reason along with American and French revolutions, where individual meritocracy meant that the best ideas had a chance of competing regardless of an individuals status.

Most large organisations are in the orange paradigm and allow individuals to rise in the organisation based on their skills, intelligence and creativity.

The limitation of the orange paradigm is when people feel the profit motive is not fulfilling enough, often viewing themselves as a cog in the machine. A 2013 Gallop poll found that only 30% of US workers were engaged at work.

Guiding Metaphor: A machine

Defining Characteristic: Competition within and with other organisations, focus on financial profit and growth and objectives-based management

Breakthrough Ideas: Innovation, Accountability and Meritocracy

Example organisations: Most Large Cooperations and many Public Universities

Limitation: When the profit motive is not fulfilling enough

Green

Green has emerged as people seek more meaning in their work. The Agile and lean movement emerged from companies with this perspective.

A part of the limitation is when consensus building leads to slow decision making and the hierarchy structures start to conflict with peoples desires to have more autonomy.

Guiding Metaphor: A Family

Defining Characteristic: Delighting customers, making decisions based on a set of shared values and high engagement from everyone in the organisations

Breakthrough Ideas: Balancing the needs of all stakeholders, a focus on culture over strategy and true empowerment of members in the organisation regardless of their level.

Example organisations: Southwest airlines and Ben & Jerries ice cream

Limitation: Consensus building leads to slow decision making

Teal

This level is emerging as organisations have discovered how to work effectively without hierarchal structures

Anti-fragile organisational structures which are either flat or based on interlocking circles of evolving roles aligning around and evolution purpose, making the world a better place.

Distributed decision-making authority uses the advice process where any colleague can make any decision in the organisation so long as they have considered the advice from anyone which the decision might impact.

The breakthrough idea of wholeness allows people to bring their whole selves to work; creative, spiritual and intellectual and they feel safe that they will not be judged for being themselves.

In most team organisations there are no managers and the purpose of the organisation is not owned by anyone person, it evolves as different people join the organisation and what the organisation learns about how to make a difference in the world.

Examples of teal organisations include Morning Star which is responsible for 40% of the tomato products in the US and Buurtzorg a 7,000 home care nursing organisation.

Guiding Metaphor: Living Systems

Defining Characteristic: Anit-Fragile organisational structures, alignment through and evolutional purpose and distributed decision making.

Breakthrough Ideas: Wholeness, Self Management and an Evolution Purpose

Example organisations: Morning Star, Patagonia and Buurtzorg.

Limitation:

With Agile and Lean

Agile and Lean are rooted in the green paradigm and most of the struggles with adoption are in organisations whose leaders have an orange perspective.

For leadership in orange organisations, agile and lean are seen as process improvements to improve productivity, efficiency or profits.

However, without adopting the cultural perspective of green, only practices that align with orange are adopted and overlayed with orange approaches like top-down management.

Agile thrives in organisations with a green perspective. In a teal organisation, agile practices become almost overkill as the organisation has evolved with their own practices which include agile values.

How to move from Orange to Green?

Seek out other companies and individuals adopting the green paradigm and perspective, especially those in leadership positions and work with them to drive the cultural change required to make agile work as it was designs

From Laloux research, it indicates that only the top leader in an organisation can successfully transfer it vertically, for example from orange to green.

However, horizontal transformation is possible, for example working within the orange perspective to make it more vibrate place with innovation and objective-based management and away from micromanagement

Complexity

However, there is data that shows the newer perspectives are better at handling increasing levels of complexity and interconnectedness.

This does not mean every situation require this and it doesn't mean only green and teal organisations will be successful.

Newer perspectives also include older ones, so using the example of a Russian doll, so an organisation with a teal perspective can and should still use the orange or amber ideas when they might best meet the needs of the organisation.

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