Most people would agree that many organizations today are too stiff, too slow and too disconnected to do well in the complex world we live in now.
Many large organizations have placed their bet on a new technology platform that will connect all their people's work. Some think that real change can only come from the bottom up. Many feel that any form of hierarchy is outdated. Some talk about culture but are not clear about what this means.
Few are making any progress. So what is the better way to go?
Rather than answer this question with yet another theory or hope, I called on Jon Froda of Podio, a founder of the platform, to ask him abut how things work at Podio. For here is an organization that eats what it sells.
And what did I find? It's all about the values and the culture of the few people at the top.
Creating a high trust environment is the main task of leadership - The key factor for getting impact is not control but is trust. It is trust that enables speed. It is trust that enables people to do the right thing. For with Trust you do get agility and speed and you do get responsiveness. And you get attachment and commitment from both your staff and your clients. The proof is in the very low turnover at Podio.
Trust is the real lubricant that enables real agility.
Technology and Leadership? - Many think that new social tools on their own will somehow give their organization the edge. Many think that the technology is the issue.
But, I think that the crucial factor here is the culture of the senior formal leaders. Here Podio is quite different from many others.
At Podio, the formal leadership participate fully in the open conversation. They model and are actors in the conversation. They use the conversation to listen to what is going on at a deep level and so know more than traditional formal leaders can about what is going on. Because they know what is going on, they are better positioned to make formal decisions too.They can exert influence in different way and nudge or model the preferred direction. Such a leadership that interacts with the system as can be done in Podio - has a sensing and navigational advantage over traditional leadership groups that have a very narrow window to the outside world and to what is really going on inside.
They can be loose on most things and tight on the important ones. This is "Authoritative" leadership as opposed to Authoritarian leadership. Authoritative Leadership builds trust.
At Podio the work is all done in public. People work out loud. This means that the leadership can pull back on control and lean into trust. It also means that they can use authoritative values and not authoritarian values. People inside Podio have space to develop.
This is one of the real vaues of using tools like Podio that enable work to be done out loud.
Bottom Up and No Formal Leaders?- Some feel that leadership should bubble up from the base. Here I think there is confusion between ideas and structure.
In the traditional authoritarian leadership, no ideas can emerge without the sanction of the formal leadership. All leadership roles are also appointed by the formal leadership. This puts a brake on ideas, creativity and reaction time. It destroys trust.
In Podio people work out loud. What is important rises to the top of the agenda. Problems get noticed more quickly as do opportunities. People with something to say participate. As a result, good people emerge. They get recognition not just from the formal leaders but from their peers.
Diversity is real too. There are as many issues as there are skill bases and points of view in an organizations. There is room for most people to find their place in the sun.
What people want more than anything in life is to mean something to others and to do meaningful work. The space that the formal leadership care at Padio enables this.
So this then changes the attachment and commitment of the people to Podio and to each other.
Face to Face or Online?
Should we all be working remotely or face to face is another big question today?
Many organizations debate the mix, some, like Automattic, focus on remote others, like Yahoo, are calling people back. In the debate what is often lost is the reasons for either.
Podio does not do remote BUT it has two offices in two different continents - so I see this as both AND.
The company is still small and working face to face offers a kind of family/tribal environment. Much of the work is online but there is the magic of the truly social. And all the while, the Atlantic and the time zones are conquered by the tool as well. Denmark is connected to the US.
I see each office as a "Pod" or a node in the larger network.
The power of high risk situations to bond the team - There is an additional face to face situation that Podio has recognized. Podio has recognized that people are best when they work face to face in new and risky situations away from home. Here the social and the work are embodied. It is like soldiers in combat or firemen who live with each other as well as work with each other. The story of the US Launch is pivotal here where the whole Danish Team came to the US to make this happen. All participated in making this event work. There was a lot of pressure and risk but it created a bonding experience that carries on.
Shared danger and prolonged socialization seem to be very good for the group.
Again this drives more trust and it creates the "Founding Story". All tribes have Founding Stories. Such stories drive long term attachment and allow the new to inherit the story. We see this again in all elite units in the military and in religions.
Operating Culture - Many people use platitudes about "respect" etc here but I observe that Podio has been very deliberate in 3 areas.
Language - Being Danes, deciding to make English the language of the workforce opens Podio to the global market place for talent. How any group seeks is a critical point in how the culture is set by the founders. All the founders were Danes. It could have been easier to speak Danish at work, but they chose not to. More than 20 nationalities now work at Podio as a result. Podio can hire in the global market for talent. This also deal with the respect issue. For many people, English is a Lingua Franca - it enables a French Woman to work with a Russian man and have neither give precedence to the other's language. All are equal in the common language.
Place - The founders also chose Copenhagen. Why? Copenhagen is a city where if you are Japanese but speak English, you can get around. It is like Podio but citywide. It is also a city where you can live close to work - close to schools and shops etc. Travel from Copenhagen is easy and not too expensive. Copenhagen itself has a culture that surrounds Podio's culture and reinforces the workplace culture in a positive way.
Scale - The Founders chose to work face to face where ever possible. Podio is still small with less than 60 staff - so it is inside the best Dunbar numbers for trust. Things may get more complex as it scales. My own thoughts are to open another hub and so keep the numbers inside each hub well within the Dunbar ideals for trust.
Bottom Line - Trust
In a traditional organization that relies on one core process, the underlying metaphor is the machine and so efficiency is key. Everything bows down to efficiency. The give up is that machines are so finely tuned that changing therm is all but impossible. Also as they get larger, the friction grows too. Finally, because they look inside for most of the time, they cannot see what is really going on in the world. They are like almost blind rhinos that can only charge at threats.
Today the world changes all the time, being able to see what is going on and make changes in time is the new ideal. Anticipating change is even better.
To be so responsive demands that the new organization be designed like an organism rather than like a machine. In an organism, trust is the core issue.
In Podio I see an organization that has been cleverly designed to be what it sells. It is very close to the organic in structure and its clear focus has been trust that allows this aspect of "life" to energize it.
Leadership and Trust - Here then is I think the competitive barrier of our time. There is no technical route to this kind of transformation. If the inner core of leaders cannot create a trusted environment then the organization is going to remain stuck in the old and so in the end, left behind.
What makes the Podio story even more interesting was that it was acquired in 2012 by Citrix. Podio is no longer an independent company. But Citrix has acted like a good parent with an adult child and has given Podio the space to continue its culture and so growth. This is not a common story.
This is not just a casual observation by me. This is the observation of decades by the two people who have done more work on this than any other. They are Frederic Laloux and Professor Brian Hall. Here is a summary of their work.
Merely, putting in a new social enterprise platform on its own is not going to do the job. Merely hoping for change to bubble up will fail. If the top leaders don't get it, the organization will stay a control obsessed bureaucracy.
