It's time to reinvent management. You can help.

Increase trust, reduce fear

“The most critical challenge for any organization is to enlarge the circle of trust.”

Command-and-control systems reflect a deep mistrust of employees’ commitment and competence. They also tend to overemphasize sanctions as a way of forcing compliance. That’s why so many organizations are filled with anxious employees who are hesitant to take the initiative or trust their own judgment. Organizational adaptability, innovation, and employee engagement can only thrive in a high-trust, low-fear culture. In such an environment, information is widely shared, contentious opinions are freely expressed, and risk taking is encouraged. Fear paralyzes, mistrust demoralizes—they must be wrung out of our management systems.

124 Stories
236 Hacks
22 Barriers

Increase trust, reduce fear

“The most critical challenge for any organization is to enlarge the circle of trust.”

Command-and-control systems reflect a deep mistrust of employees’ commitment and competence. They also tend to overemphasize sanctions as a way of forcing compliance. That’s why so many organizations are filled with anxious employees who are hesitant to take the initiative or trust their own judgment. Organizational adaptability, innovation, and employee engagement can only thrive in a high-trust, low-fear culture. In such an environment, information is widely shared, contentious opinions are freely expressed, and risk taking is encouraged. Fear paralyzes, mistrust demoralizes—they must be wrung out of our management systems.

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A story of how one brave company blended work and play and achieved an unmatched level of performance.
Story by Matt Shlosberg on June 7, 2010
In order to reinvent management, we have to replace the root cause of its current function. One of these root causes is the fact that manager's job is to create wealth for shareholders.
Hack by Matt Shlosberg on September 5, 2010
What would our sector look like if we gave our value proposition a little twist? What would the results be like?
Hack by Luc Galoppin on July 16, 2011
An alternative approach to setting remuneration levels for employees, based strongly on employees own evaluation of what they are worth, and what they have done performance wise to earn any additional
Hack by Chris Van Kooten on December 9, 2011
Feeling recognized feels amazing. At work we started a recognition revolution with StarmeUp!
Story by Laura Alfonsin on August 17, 2017
The Vice President of the division told me a decision was made that I was not going any higher in the management of our company.
Story by Jim McGriff, Jr. on December 14, 2016
A supervisor in a central dispatch center is a different kind of first line management.I was given the Dispatch Supervisor job when our control center opened for our division.
Story by Jim McGriff, Jr. on March 13, 2017
While keen tone skills offer more opportunities to collaborate -  as we draw from people's excellent ideas and insights in any discussion -  innovation loses when tone is lost.
Barrier by Ellen Weber on September 16, 2010
AAU4M stands for Agony Aunts & Uncles for Managers.
Hack by Madhusudan Rao on August 2, 2010
Human resources departments are a major barrier to getting the right people on the bus, motivating people, helping people grow into their natural talents, and getting things done.
Barrier by John D Chovan on December 1, 2010

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