The Future is Teal
When I was growing up, the following phrase was burned into my memory: “Work isn’t supposed to be fun, that’s why it’s called work and not play.” This stuck with me throughout college as an engineering student, trying to choose a career that was as close to “play” as I could find. Could I design roller coasters or the crazy manufacturing machines that “make the things” on How It’s Made? The tough thing about the “fun job” is, everyone wants it, and the real world needs more than roller coasters and cocktail robots (there was a team that thought they struck gold with that idea in literally every design class I took).
So, if the content of every job can’t be fun how is it that we make work feel less like work? A few years ago, I realized, I care less about what I do and more about how I feel when I’m doing it.
Think about your current job for a minute. How much better would your day be if all these statements held true?:
You feel like you get to bring your “whole self” to work, without wearing some societal mask
There is no “game to play,” people say what they mean and are direct and upfront with each other
You don’t have a “boss” telling you how/what/when to do every little aspect of your job, you get the work done and that’s all that matters
Your company has a more purposeful goal than “Make the most profit possible”
When faced with pursuing that goal at all costs or sacrificing the goal in pursuit of profit, your company chooses purpose over profit
Now open your eyes — shoot, forgot to tell you to close your eyes...close your eyes, now open them. How did that alternate reality feel? If it felt amazing, you’re not alone, and you’re not dreaming — those companies exist…Frederic Laloux refers to them as Teal Organizations in his book Reinventing Organizations.
We live in a world of acronyms, but in this case, Teal is just a color associated with the latest stage in a theoretical evolution of organizational development. Here’s a quick summary of the "color stages" Frederic identified – each has its pros and cons, serving an important role in our development that got us to where we are today:
Red:
Emerged about 10,000 years ago, think feudal/chiefdom society. Whoever has the biggest army/strongest weapon wins. It wasn’t pretty, but it organized the chaos some. Mafias and gangs are good examples of Red organizations still in operation.
Amber:
Around 4000 BC, organizations started thinking and planning to scale long term with strong emphasis on trusted processes. Amber is extremely successful in large-scale organizations with many moving parts where processes have been crafted over time to handle most scenarios. But processes can feel rigid and take a long time to adapt. Most Bureaucratic Institutions exhibit Amber characteristics, by their nature.
Orange:
During the industrial revolution, we started to see the machine behind the curtain and understand complex cause and effect. This resulted in developing a lot of efficiencies and also enabled highly tuned performance and competition. These organizations are operated as machines, knowing you can increase profit by tweaking a setting. This is how most IT Consultancies operate today.
Green:
In the late 1900s, consensus-seeking organizations began seeing their companies as a family, many with a focus on saving the Earth. This is a noble, wonderful cause, until you forget you still need to make money to stay in business and waiting forever on consensus means nothing gets done. Ben & Jerry’s is one of the most successful Green organizations I can think of.
Teal:
In this stage, organizations are viewed as their own force, with their own purpose, that does not simply exist for management to grow accounts and make money. Teal organizations are characterized by wholeness, transparency, self-management, evolution, and purpose over profit. Individual roles/groups function more like organs in a body and less like cogs in a machine.
The research behind these classifications draws on well-researched work of scholars, psychologists, philosophers, and anthropologists – but you can sort of feel it in the way people are approaching work. The 2000s saw the rise of the “Gig Economy” with more and more people striving for self-management to “be their own boss.” More people are willing to blur the line between work and personal time, provided the work is fulfilling and engaging. You used to have to choose to work for a company that would “make a difference” or “make money,” but companies like Patagonia and Zappos are proving that it doesn’t have to be either/or. In a rare demonstration of transparency and self-management, a Seattle-based credit card processing and financial services company sought advice from its employees to determine how to stay afloat amidst the economic blow of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, 98% of its employees volunteered to temporarily cut their pay between 5 and 100 percent (in accordance with what they could afford) to avoid layoffs.
RiverNorth strives to be one of the first, Teal Federal Contracting organizations.
Prior to learning of Reinventing Organizations, the founders were individually drawn to a few teal concepts that have since been woven into RiverNorth’s organizational fabric:
Wholeness: The act of bringing your “whole self” to work every day, without feeling the need to wear a “corporate mask.” Accomplished by seeking tasks that bring us fulfillment, being free to talk about all our interests without judgement, and removing competition and bureaucracy from our culture.
Transparency: The Founders share everything with everyone in the company – profit and loss, salaries of every employee, strategy, and so on. It’s all freely consumable information. Because no decision was ever made easier by having only some of the relevant information.
Self-Management: You know how you got yourself dressed this morning without anyone telling you how to do it? It’s that, but while you’re at work.
Evolutionary Purpose: RiverNorth exists to turn the traditional IT consulting and government contracting paradigm on its head. Our goal is to prove that holding employee development, value-based leadership, and a distributed decision-making culture above all else yields better results for employees – and by extension, clients and the business.
Purpose over Profit: When we are faced with a difficult decision, we look to our purpose – our “why.” If it’s between remaining true to our purpose and making a few more dollars, we choose purpose.
A few parting thoughts if you want to learn more about Teal:
Read Reinventing Organizations, there is also an illustrated version to get you started
No organization is entirely monochromatic or ever “Fully Teal” – it’s a constant evolution
Teal is not for everyone and that’s ok!