Recently we get more and more aware of how privilege in society works and how it affects opportunities available to different groups. What we miss out is that a similar power dynamic is in play in the modern workplace. Decision-making power and position in the hierarchy are privileges and they influence how organizations act. Not only does it make companies unprepared for the challenges of the evolving world but also reluctant to change in order to get ready for these challenges. To change the status quo we need to rethink the management models we use in the modern workplace. Interestingly, we know the solution, except we were using it to cure a different disease. Self-organization has been widely adopted in order to improve the performance of our teams. So far, though, we failed to exploit its potential to create the workplace that is more humane, fairer, and most importantly better fit for the future.

1. Power as Privilege
PAWEL BRODZINSKI

3. TRASH BIN

4. Hello, I’m Pawel
I’m white,
heterosexual
male
living in a big city
in one of the most developed
parts of the world

5. Hello, I’m Pawel
I’m white,
heterosexual
male
living in a big city
in one of the most developed
parts of the world
I’m a CEO
at Lunar Logic (IT industry)

6. Hello, I’m Pawel
I’m privileged,
privileged,
privileged,
privileged,
and privileged
Oh, I’m even more privileged
and privileged

9. According to Polish law both parents are equal
when it comes to parental responsibility.

10. According to Polish law both parents are equal
when it comes to parental responsibility.
In case of a divorce only in 1 out of 3 of cases
both parents keep full parental responsibility

11. In case of a divorce only in 1 out of 3 of cases
both parents keep full parental responsibility
Out of the rest in less than 1 out of 14 cases
full parental responsibility stays with a father
According to Polish law both parents are equal
when it comes to parental responsibility.

12. privilege
/ˈprɪv.əl.ɪdʒ/
noun
an advantage that only one person or group of people has, usually because of
their position or because they are rich
the way in which rich people or people from a high social class have most of the
advantages in society
Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/

13. Power as privilege

14. Hierarchy discourages decentralization of power

15. privilege
/ˈprɪv.əl.ɪdʒ/
noun
an advantage that only one person or group of people has, usually because of
their position or because they are rich
the way in which rich people or people from a high social class have most of the
advantages in society
Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/privilege

16. privilege
/ˈprɪv.əl.ɪdʒ/
noun
an advantage that only one person or group of people has, usually because of
their position or because they are rich
the way in which rich people or people from a high social class have most of the
advantages in society

17. privilege
/ˈprɪv.əl.ɪdʒ/
noun
an advantage that only one person or group of people has, usually because of
their position or because they are rich
the way in which rich people or people from a high social class have most of the
advantages in society

18. privilege
/ˈprɪv.əl.ɪdʒ/
noun
an advantage that only one person or group of people has, usually because of
their position or because they are rich
the way in which rich people or people from a high social class have most of the
advantages in society

19. Privilege of power is invisible to those in power

20. Is that even a problem?

21. The “ladder” promotion system

22. Women in S&P 500 Companies
Source: Catalyst, Pyramid: Women in S&P 500 Companies (2019)
5% CEOs
21% board seats
27% senior level managers
37% low and mid level managers
45% total employees

23. In 2018 there were fewer women among
chief executives in Fortune 500 companies
than there were people named James. In
that group there was only one more women
than there were Johns.
CLAIRE CAIN MILLER, KEVIN QUEALY, MARGOT SANGER-KATZ
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/24/upshot/women-and-men-named-john.html

24. Similarity-Attraction Effect
People prefer to affiliate with those who share similar
attitudes, personalities, physical attributes, and a host of
other characteristics compared to others who do not.
Source: Donn Byrne: Attraction Paradigm

25. The privilege of power makes organizations dumb

26. Knowledge is with workers, not managers

27. Knowledge workers must know more about
their job than their boss does–or else they are
no good at all.
PETER DRUCKER
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/24/upshot/women-and-men-named-john.html

28. Management has neither awareness of a
need nor intention to change the power
dynamic in organizations.
It is so because power is a privilege. We are
not aware of our privilege and we
subconsciously cling to it.

30. Self-organization
Self-organization, also called (in the social sciences) spontaneous order, is a
process where some form of overall order arises from local interactions between
parts of an initially disordered system. The process is spontaneous, not needing
control by any external agent. It is often triggered by random fluctuations, amplified
by positive feedback. The resulting organization is wholly decentralized, distributed
over all the components of the system.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/

31. (Oversimplified) History of Agile

32. PRACTICES
PRINCIPLES
VALUES

33. PRACTICES
VALUES
Self-organization
as a team practice
The principle of
self-organization
PRINCIPLES
The shared value
of autonomy

34. Scaling self-organization and autonomy

36. Decentralizing control requires decentralizing
both the authority to make decisions and the
information required to make these decisions
correctly.
DON REINERTSEN
Source: Don Reinertsen: Principles of Product Development Flow

37. Alignment as a prerequisite to autonomy

38. Alignment as a prerequisite to autonomy

39. Alignment as a prerequisite to autonomy

40. Almost universally the best way for a chief
executive to impact their organization is
through working on better alignment
throughout the organization and pushing
decision making down the hierarchy as much
as possible.

41. EXECS
MANAGEMENT
LINE EMPLOYEES
EXECS
MANAGEMENT
LINE EMPLOYEES
Gary Hamel: Inverting the pyramid
Source: Gary Hamel: The Future of Management

42. EXECS
MANAGEMENT
LINE EMPLOYEES
Decentralization of power: Dismantling the pyramid
EXECS
MANAGEMENT LINE EMPLOYEES

43. The hard part: we cling to the privilege of power

45. Thank you