To reshape the world let’s reshape our organizations

The HOW Report is a new cross-industry statistical analysis of 16,000 employees at companies spanning 17 countries. It identifies three archetypes of governance, culture and leadership: Blind Obedience, Informed Acquiescence and Self-Governance. When measured by market share, levels of customer satisfaction, employee engagement and business sustainability, guess which one wins? By a lot.
Report: The HOW Report. A Global, Empirical Analysis of How Governance, Culture and Leadership Impact Performance

Your life will change when you change your mind

We love a good manifesto and this week we stumbled upon a great one.
Manifesto: The Motivated Mastery Manifesto.

Designing a responsive organization? Follow nature’s lead

As an evolutionary biologist, a businessperson, and a biomimic, Tamsin Woolley-Barker is pretty sure that organizations can’t keep growing the way we structure them today. She suggests that we mimic ants instead.
Article: Want to build an organization that lasts? Create a superorganism.

Re-assesing assessment as a tool to improve performance

David Grant has a radical idea: let’s use project assessment not as a summative tool at the conclusion of our work but as a formative tool during the process.
Book review: The Social Profit Handbook: The Essential Guide to Setting Goals, Assessing Outcomes, and Achieving Success for Mission-Driven Organizations

Less than a week until the next gathering of change agents who want to use their brand as a tool for transformation

Next week, on the 28th, Mitch and Todd will run the fall DIY Brand Camp at Smith College. We’ve got a great class of 24 signed up. There’s still room for you. Learn more.

Playlist

This week we’ve been listening to a lot of Carrie Rodriguez. The Texas-based, Berklee-trained singer/songwriter has been blowing minds since her first appearance at SXSW in 2001. Her new album Lola features guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Victor Kraus and singer and guitarist Raúl Malo. Here’s another mind blowing performance, a NPR Music Tiny Desk concert she did earlier this year in support of this fantastic album.

Images of the week

Photographer Henk Wildschut will be featured in a new MOMA show that considers how designers are responding to the plight of those on the move:
Museum Show: Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter. Museum of Modern Art, NYC. October 1, 2016–January 22, 2017

Both of these images were shot on the same day one year ago, September 19, 2015, on the Hongaria/Serbian border. Just days before refugees had encountered at a newly fenced border. The square image on the blog landing page is that new fence. The image at the top of this page tells the other side of the same story.