Traditional management built on command-and-control hierarchies and bureaucratic compliance engines is a horrible error that has strangled value creation for 150 years. We’re just now breaking free and realizing the potential of “no-management”. Doug Kirkpatrick surveys the new field and shows us all the possibilities and potentialities.

A beautifully written fable that highlights the challenges & successes of shifting to Self Organization, including the personal impact that many other authors omit. The array of real world examples cemented my understanding.

An absolute must-read for anyone frustrated by traditional, top-down organizations. Beyond Empowerment reveals why traditional management is inefficient and shows you a simple blueprint for something better: focused self-management. Self-managed organizations create freedom for everyone, they eliminate the "management tax," they prevent abuse of power, and they eliminate the waste and friction of politics. They build almost-unbeatable organizations that spot their problems and opportunities, act quickly, and stay focused on their missions. This book uses the famous Morning Star approach as its model, which is brilliant in its simplicity. Everything stems from two basic principles of civil society: 1) keep your commitments, and 2) don't use force. The remaining principles and tools flow neatly from these, like an elegant geometric proof. These include: freedom to act; no (unilateral) command authority (including firing); elimination of self-serving titles; universal mutual accountability; direct problem resolution; values and principles to safely guide independent action; a Colleague Accountability Agreement that creates natural, fluid structure in the organization; personal missions and metrics in support of the company mission; onboarding training to start new colleagues out right; a coaching and mentoring culture to build and maintain the culture and develop colleagues; and a process-oriented mindset so subtly built in that continuous process improvement is easy but inevitable. The book includes a sample accountability agreement and other supporting tools, procedures, and ideas to help you make the change yourself. This approach may sound naive and heretical to a lot of people. Therefore, case studies are included at the end to show that variations of these concepts (and even this specific implementation) are proven over decades. Of course, there are limits to self-management: 1) Doug points out here (and in his TEDx talk) that self-management may not work if you have a lot of low-initiative or high-controlling workers/managers. You'll first need a model that transforms your culture from command-and-control to initiative and ownership, then you can consider the leap to self-management. 2) It's unclear whether this approach can work in a subset (department) of a larger organization since higher management could use force at any time and disrupt the ecosystem of trust and mutual responsibility. The book only describes a process for transforming an entire organization at once, from the C-suite to the front lines. Beyond Empowerment is a quick read that will leave you thinking for years.

Deep insights. Easy to read.

good

This book is an invitation to walk in the shoes of how this bossless company evolved to become what it is. It’s a book whose time has come – from outlier to mainstream. It makes the case that with freedom comes leadership of the best kind, from everywhere in the company and not just at the top. Doug Kirkpatrick, the author of Beyond Empowerment, has done a masterful job in telling the essence of the story of Morning Star portrayed here as BerryWay. We can see the same values and principles of companies like W.L. Gore and Sun Hydraulics who each have a proven track record showing the merits of what a principled self-managed flat structure, a process mindset and a commitment to excellence can do, sustainably over the long term. Thoughtful, detailed and deliberate, one gets a real sense of the human side of moving from a traditional command control hierarchical model to self-management; from the perspective of senior and middle management and also as a line employee. Taking this on is not a walk in the park but as we discover, it’s a journey worth taking. Gary Hamel in The Future of Management and What Matters most and then more recently, Frederic Laloux in Reinventing Organizations, have made a solid case for moving in this direction. Doug gives us a look and feel of what it looks like to do this step by step in terms of culture and execution.

Awesome, although I'm a member of self-management institute, I need to say that this book has gone far beyond my expectations. Wonderful, exciting and fabulous story of a self-management company. Really inspiring.

Phenomenal book. Should be added as part of fundamental business management courses. Don't believe me? Give it a read to understand why I'm willing to make such a statement.

Doug Kirkpatrick writes an engaging story of how to dramatically change how organizations are ran. It is even more amazing when you find out that it based on a true company and actual experiences. It challenges conventional wisdom and offers a way to engage employees in a deeper and more meaningful way than the old command and control approaches. What is most interesting is how this approach achieves much deeper accountability than traditional methods. If you are an exhausted manager, I recommend that you read this book and consider the possibilities.

I read the author's article in T+D magazine about self-management at the Morning Star Company, which was also featured on the cover of the December 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review (article titled: First, Let's Fire All the Managers). This book adds detailed, practical information that is way beyond the scope of the magazine articles - and a pleasant story puts it all in context.

I have been working with business people for nearly 20 years toward being and doing what is written in this book. I am SO thankful to Doug Kirkpatrick for bringing a clear explanation of what this looks like to live and work and enjoy both together! If everyone in your organization was fully engaged now it would benefit you by . . . . ____________? To find out read and do what Doug has written here!

BEYOND EMPOWERMENT is a business narrative about a designed culture, one where each and every participant makes volitional choice about the scope of relationship and commitments to others at work. The goal of the book is to tell a story about designing a culture at work, testing that design in the real world, and making adjustments, based on experience..... in pursuit of great results. I am happy to report the book succeeds. This is an essential title for anyone building a library of books around culture design and "culture hacking". I give it my highest recommendation. BEYOND EMPOWERMENT is a short, compelling powerful read.

Imagine reading a short novel based on a real and highly successful company. Are you ready to positively change your concept of management? This book adds just enough context to introduce you to the dynamic characters that play out the exciting story. It's about cutting edge business management being defined where everyone manages the mission, and no one manages employees. Wise principles hold the key to create the essential cohesion in this inspiring company, Morning Star, and other companies that were previously profiled in a 2011 HBR article. See for yourself that the Age of the Self Managed Organization offers creative solutions to old problems. A must read for every manager and executive.

Beyond Empowerment explains the concept of the self-managed organization through story form instead of as a theoretical construct, which makes it much more understandable and approachable as well as showing how an organization can transform itself from a traditional hierarchy to this extremely powerful new organizational form based on a completely flat peer network of interlocking, self-negotiated colleague agreements (if you have any libertarian sympathies at all, you will love it). It's a fictionalized version of the story of what really happened and continues to happen at The Morning Star Company, recently profiled in a cover story of the Harvard Business Review. Most business books are anecdotal, shallow, or obvious common sense, but this book goes way beyond that to describe a radical new vision for how organizations can run - and it is definitely the organization of the future. Very highly recommended.

I read the entire book in a night, and it's quite fascinating. It comes out of Morningstar, the company on the cover of the Harvard Business Review because they have a lean operation with hundreds of people and NO managers. This puts it all in context through story, as well as some great examples of other companies (in the back). NOTE: The first 10-15 pages or so where the entrepreneur builds his team are very, very boring. If you only read that and put it down you'll think it's a bad book. So if you find that part tedious just skim through it because it gets really good!

This book is important because, although it is fiction, it is based on facts. Fact 1: Self-management can and does work--and this is an uncomfortable fact for many. Fact 2: The Morning Star Company (on which it is loosely based) is a real example. Fact 3: The author's experience at Morning Star informs the 'fiction'.

Beyond Empowerment is a fictionalized account of a company that creates a new paradigm in management--a company where everyone is a manager. The book is really a "how-to", with step-by-step instruction in moving from a traditional management structure to a self-managed corporation. It crystallizes something that most in management have known for a long time--whether or not they really want to admit it--that the people who do the jobs are the ones who best understand how to do them, what resources are needed, and what can be done to not only enhance productivity but to also create greater job satisfaction. Self-management is at the vanguard of the future of management, and this book is an easy-to-read introduction to the movement that is applicable to organizations of any size, both for-profit and not-for profit.