We had a very interesting podcast with Andrew Tilling who is helping big business transform to co-management.

Andrew Tillings is a Brit living in Italy and he’s the founder of The Hive Change Consultancy. The name comes from Andrew’s admirations of bees who communicate complex patterns and choose a direction to go build a new hive by consent. Not all of the bees have to, and not all them do, but if enough of them follow, they can build a new hive. They don’t follow the boss, because there isn’t any, they follow what resonates with them. The decision is decentralized.

Rather than trying to convert the whole business at once, Andrew goes about it in small bites. Sometime he’ll start with Sales and show them how they can improve sales in a decentralized way. Bosses take time away from what they like to do most: selling. Bosses consume a big salary that is better applied to another sales person or resources to make them all more effective. The result is increase sales.

He also shows them how transparency trumps made up bullshit. Being honest and straightforward with customers creates trust and pays in the end.

Complement

The revelation for us was that Andrew’s way could a complement to our efforts and his approach could be used to introduce co-ownership.

For example, RADs can be introduced to the team and the “bonus” budget could be distributed according to them,

• Introducing RADs would give them visceral experience of collaborating without a boss.
• The bonus distribution would make their decisions tangible.
• The whole thing would be transparent and the transparency would give them the ability to make corrections.
• In the end, it would feel fair, rather than having the boss pass out secret checks.