Malcolm Colman-Shearer’s needs weren’t being met in his banking IT job in New Zealand, so he left to find an environment that was more socially oriented where relationships were important. Thus, he founded Optimi and became a member of Enspiral.

He shares the ups of downs of his journey with networks and decentralized organizations, his optimism about new ways of organizing, and thinks the rising consciousness of organization structures is more akind to rainforests than corn fields.

Ella Morgulis practices empathy, patience, and gratitude as a life coach and practitioner of “Positive Intelligence and Mental Fitness.” She shares her childhood in Odesa and Russia and emigration to San Francisco as a young adult, plus the religious, cultural, and educational hurdles she encountered. Her path has shaped her belief that we can consciously increase our positivity, opening up our possibilities.

John Thompson, The PCO Group, breaks down the 3 roles of a traditional manager – subject matter expert, developing humans, and organizing how a team functions together. We cover designing for intrinsic motivation by splitting the manager (boss) role into 3 roles, how being bossless creates opportunities not threats, and having facilitators to show up as bosses disappear.

Sonja Robinson, an international leadership coach, facilitates peer coaching groups. She shares the mechanics of a peer group and the role of a trained coach, how the learnings from the wisdom of the crowd can be quite quick to learn, and how one can change their attitudes which leads to new behaviors. She shares the impact on the people in her peer coaching circles.
Listen to the companion episode with John Thompson on redefining the role of manager.

John Thompson, The PCO Group founder, fosters human development - the mix of emotional social and leadership intelligence - with restructuring the role of “manager” in an organization. John transfers some of the “manager” roles to other colleagues (such as the organizational role) and to embedded coaches who facilitate and ultimately unlock the intrinsic motivation that lies within all of us. Listen to the companion episode with Sonja Robinson on peer coaching.

Wade Okinaka and Elise Lacher share the self management and human centered practices that they bring into traditional hierarchical workplaces while hitting the metrics.
This chat with my SemcoStyle colleagues continues with more hiring and onboarding practices – like rotating new colleagues through all the roles of the team, and experiments that become part of the culture.
Don’t forget to listen to Part 1!

Wade Okinaka & Elise Lacher answer the question: how can you create engaged teams with autonomy in a top down workplace? Can middle managers make a difference? Yes! They share the self management and human centered practices that they bring into traditional hierarchical workplaces while hitting the metrics. They share why these practices are just as good for managers as they are for those reporting to them. We are SemcoStyle colleagues.

Ron Quartel’s roots in extreme programming lead him to develop FAST Agile (fluid scaling technology), where people form a marketplace around the work. We talk about FAST Agile, the 2 year experiment he ran using it and why the team decided to discontinue it, and why he loves 10% time, hackathons and Open Space.

Elise Lacher and Bill Kearley, co-founders of Enlightened Rebels, believe that communication is key. They share how they work with their veterinary clients on shared leadership and decision making, their hiring philosophy and practices (including 3 core values they encourage their clients to look for when they are hiring), and the role of purpose in creating a culture that attracts and keeps colleagues.

Brian Haney shares his deep knowledge of the history of pirates during the Golden Age of Pirates and how they manifested their vision of the world they wanted to live in. He’s parlaying his 14 years at Google and experience as an independent IT consultant into team self management.

We deserve human-centered organizations that are worthy of receiving the best that we have to offer. I’m finding our new role models – creators and rebels who make working together better. They’ll share their stories for how they’re co-creating innovative workplaces focused on dynamic leadership and inspired teams. Be inspired to experiment!