Laloux Cultural Model

Subject

Leadership

Participants

Agile Coach / Agile Master, stakeholders / managers, the entire team

Facilitator

Agile Coach / Agile Master

Photo by Ann H

Summary

The Laloux Cultural Model gives a clear overview of how humans have historically organized in groups over a large period of time.

Definition

The Red organizations are marked by the loyalty and the fear the chief radiates to keep the employees ("foot soldiers") in line. If he/she is not strong enough, the risk emerges that someone else from the crowd will topple him/her. These organizations are very unstable. (Examples: Mafia, street gangs).
The Amber organization form is characterized by having many rules about what is correct and what is wrong. People have a common belief and exercise self-discipline to fit perfectly into this organization with its specific rules. These organizations are extremely stable and everything is kind of certain. Stable rituals and processes make life predictable for everyone.
The Orange organizations are like real "machines", focused on being smarter, better, more innovative in manipulating the world, achieving success, profit, market share etc. These organizations are very contemporary and dominate today's management views. They are marked by materialism as a key value.
The Green organizations are called "families", where everyone has a place, where colleagues take care of each other, where the happiness of every member is important to the organization's overall success. The key values of this organizational behavior are: Empowerment of people, a value-driven culture and stakeholder value.
The Teal organization is the last level of this model. Many people who shift to a teal perspective start to feel pain and emptiness in the actual modern life, where they have separated very much of their true nature. They want to get back the inner voice of their soul. People miss the wholeness. In this form of organizations, people shift from an external to an internal decision-making. As a consequence, ego is left out and also the need to control things and to fit in.

Motivation

Our world is changing very fast. It is a profoundly new view of the world, one that opens radical new possibilities. The world is seen as a place where we want to discover and journey towards our true self, to unleash our unique potential.

Results

A self-assessment on the view of the current cultural model of the organization as well as insights into what model is sought.

Benefit

If you know what kind of organization you would like to have and know your current situation, you can define the right measures for developing your company into the right direction.

Procedure

The facilitator organizes a workshop together with the stakeholders, managers and everyone who has a leadership role within the organization. The facilitator then invites every participant to reflect about the following aspects:
"Are your activities as a manager aimed more at satisfying your own ego or at recognizing the overall system?"
"Who are the stakeholders in your work? Try to identify as many stakeholders as possible: Who is interested? Who has influence? Who is affected?"
"Which organization form from the Laloux Cultural Model would you assign your department to?"
"What is the paradigm of your company? Which paradigm is worth striving for?"
After the participants have written down their notes, the facilitator invites them to share their thoughts with the entire group. The group will then identify together to what paradigm of the cultural model their organization fits best and will gather some action items / solutions in order to achieve the desired/ideal organization form.

Tools

Flipchart / whiteboard

Hints

The boundaries between the dfferent kinds of organizations may have smooth trasitions.

See also

Frederic Laloux: Reinventing organizations
Laloux Cultural Model and Agile Adoption