Weekends are time when things slow down a little. Your weekend shouldn’t be two more regular workdays. That’s a sure road to burnout. Take time to refresh yourself. Take time for something different. Take time for some of that reading you can’t find time for during the week.

Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms. This week there are articles about Humanocracy and human-centered workplaces.

From the London Business School: Wake up to the new workplace revolution

“In his much-anticipated new book Humanocracy: Creating Organisations as Amazing as the People Inside Them, co-authored with McKinsey & Company alumnus Michele Zanini, Hamel provides a radical yet practical alternative to the management model that has underpinned large organisations since the industrial age.”

From Training Journal: The demise of the ‘Hero Leader’: Six truths about leadership in the digital age

“The digital economy has radically changed the way many of us now work – including organisational leaders. The top-down, ‘hero’ approach of leadership that worked in the industrial age is no longer fit for purpose and digital leaders need different methodologies. Today, fostering collaboration and encouraging innovation are now core competencies of effective leaders.”

Thanks to Smartbrief on Leadership for pointing me to this story

From the London Business School: Good riddance to those old ways of working

“Covid-19 has forced through big changes in how organisations and the people in them operate, paving the way for a more human future”

From Ricardo Semler: Managing Without Managers

“In Brazil, where paternalism and the family business fiefdom still flourish, I am president of a manufacturing company that treats its 800 employees like responsible adults. Most of them—including factory workers—set their own working hours. All have access to the company books. The vast majority vote on many important corporate decisions. Everyone gets paid by the month, regardless of job description, and more than 150 of our management people set their own salaries and bonuses.”

From Gianpiero Petriglieri: Are Our Management Theories Outdated?

“Scientific management. Human relations. Competitive advantage. Shareholder value maximization. Disruptive innovation. These are only a few of the theories that have moved management over the past century, offering it a rationale, a script, and at times a justification for action. They have shaped management, too, conveying an image of who managers must be.”

From Theodore Kinni: Don’t kill bureaucracy, use it

“Bureaucracies are the scaffolding needed to implement new ideas at scale. Just remember to dismantle them when the work is done.”

From Steve Denning: What 21st Century Management Looks Like

“While there is a growing consensus as to what good 21st century management looks like, as well as a recognition that Agile isn’t the only path to achieve it, it is striking to see how many big corporations are still practicing the outmoded principles of 20th century management, in which:”

My review of Humanocracy

“Humanocracy is superbly researched and well-written. Read it for good ideas and thought starters. But there are some dangerous assumptions in Humanocracy. It’s not clear that much change of the organizational structure can bubble up from the bottom of a bureaucratic organization. Professor Hamel calls for lots of radical change and urges you to be courageous. That’s because it’s dangerous, but the dangers aren’t discussed. Finally, the book implies we can change the natural human need for hierarchy.”

Book Suggestions for Creating People-Centered Organizations

Humanocracy by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini

7 Day Weekend by Ricardo Semler

Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan

It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Plain Talk by Ken Iverson

Powerful by Patty McCord

Team of Teams by Stanley McChrystal
Every Monday, I do a blog post about business reading and business books. Follow this link to my review BOOK.