Samantha Slade. Going Horizontal - creating a non-hierarchical organization, one practice at a time. Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.. 2018.

Author's book site: Going Horizontal

Abridged Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

1. Why Go Horizontal?

• Human Nature Is Non-hierarchical
• Non-hierarchical Ways Are Possible and Present in the Workplace
• Hierarchy Won't Take Us into Our Future
• What Does a Successful Horizontal Organizational Mind-Set Look Like?
  • Colleagues Hold Each Other Accountable, and Responsibility Is Shared
  • People Own Their Personal Leadership
  • People Do Not Feel Imposed Upon, and Yet They Honor Their Commitments
  • Actions Are Both Participatory and Responsive
  • The Organization is Equitable, Generative, and Fair
• Getting Unstuck When Going Horizontal

2. Practicing is the Path to Mastery

• Develop a Horizontal Mind-Set through Practice, Now
  • The whole idea of non-hierarchical ways is to own your personal leadership
  • Much of the work of shifting to a non-hierarchical mind-set is internal
  • You don't really know the future
  • Sometimes people focus on non-hierarchical structural and policy shifts that have more immediate visibility
• What Defines a Practice?
• Three Types of Practice
  • Personal practice
  • Safe practices
  • Trial practices
• Practices Are for Everyone, No Matter Your Role
  • the list
    • Autonomy
    • Purpose
    • Meetings
    • Transparency
    • Decision Making
    • Learning and Development
    • Relationships and Conflicts
  • We All Start in Different Places
• Straddling Two Paradigms

3. Autonomy - claim your personal leadership

• Why Autonomy Is Important
• Humans Are Wired for Autonomous Behavior
• Self-Managing When and Where You Work
  • Guiding Principles
    • The organization comes first
    • Acknowledge challenging habits
    • State your limits
  • When You Work
  • Where You Work
• Self-Organizing Tasks -- The Kanban Board
• Taking Responsibility
  • Taking Responsibility for What You Notice
    • Inquiry
    • Contributing
    • Proposal (personal ownership)
  • Finding Clarity
• Exchanging Job Descriptions for Roles
  • Having Self-Awareness of What Roles to Take On
  • Stewardship versus Ownership
  • Holding One Another Accountable
• Summary - autonomy
  • Self-manage when and where you work
  • Self-organize your tasks (and resist delegating)
  • Take responsibility for situations
  • Organize around roles and hold one another accountable

4. Purpose - the invisible leader

• Why Purpose Is Important
• We Naturally Check In with Purpose All the Time
• Clarifying Purpose
  • Stop and Listen
  • Connect to Inspiration
  • Go to the Source
• Inviting Rather Than Obliging
• Keeping Purpose on Track
  • Pick up on the signals
  • Separate your personal preferences from the larger purpose
  • Engage your personal leadership
• Aligning with Purpose
  • Accept the purpose
  • Intervene to modify the purpose
  • Move on
• Purpose of the Organization
• Summary - purpose
  • Clarify Purpose
  • Invite rather than obliging
  • Keep purpose on track
  • Align with purpose
  • Connect with the organization's purpose

5. Meetings - sharing responsibilities and accountability

• Why Co-managing Meetings Is Important
• Co-managing Meetings Is Natural for Us
• Clarifying Purpose Together
• Checking In before Jumping In
  • Each person speaks from their own experience
  • No dialogue takes place
  • The amount of time needed can vary
• Sharing Equally
  • Be equally genuine and open
  • Let others speak for themselves
  • If you are the facilitator, summarize regularly and rotate the person who summarizes
  • Record the meeting visually
• Splitting Up into Subgroups
• Using Silence to Work Better
• Setting the Agenda
  • Clarify the theme of the meeting
  • At the beginning of the meeting, invite those who have a topic they would like to discuss to write their name, topic, time required, and number of people required on the whiteboard
  • Begin the meeting with a short topic with a quick win
• Self-Determining Attendance
• Sharing the Documentation
  • Documentation responsibility
  • Documentation tools
  • Documentation structure
• Using the Space to Support Co-managed Meetings
• Rotating the Role of Facilitator
• Summary - meetings
  • Clarify purpose together
  • Check in before jumping in
  • Share equally
  • Split up into subgroups
  • Use silence to work better
  • Set the agenda
  • Self-determine attendance
  • Share the documentation work
  • Use the space to embody egalitarian meetings
  • Rotate the role of facilitator

    6. Transparency - open is effective and efficient

• Transparency as a Normal Human Practice
• Growing Your Sharing Culture
  • Default to Open
  • Make It Easy for Others
• Make Your Daily Activities Visible to Your Colleagues
• Proactively Invite in the External World
  • values and benefits
    • Collective intelligence
    • Community
    • System thinking
  • guiding principles
    • Invite with reciprocity
    • Stay on track
    • Value external input
• Overcoming Taboos around Finance
  • Budgets and Bookkeeping
  • Profits and Pricing
    • Sharing with employees
    • Sharing with clients
    • Sharing in procurement
  • Transparent Salaries
• Summary - transparency
  • Grow your sharing culture
  • Invite in the external world
  • Get beyond taboos around finances

7. Decision Making - sharing the power

• Why Sharing Decision Making Is Important
• We Share Decision Making Every Day
• Our Beliefs and Fears around Decision Making
• Using the Appropriate Method for a Given Situation
• Clarifying When a Decision Needs to Be Participatory
• Using Different Types of Agreement Systems
• Generative Decision Making
  • Readiness
  • Proposal, version 1
  • Clarifying Questions
  • Reactions
  • Proposal, version 2
  • Objections
  • Visual Confirmation
• Making the Decision-Making System Explicit
  • Types of decisions
  • Accountability
  • Decision-making methods
  • Where and when decisions are taken
  • Documenting and communicating about decisions made
• Nourishing the Proposal Mind-Set
• Summary - decision-making
  • Clarify when a decision should be participatory
  • Use the appropriate decision-making method for a given situation
  • Use different types of agreement systems
  • Generative decision making helps stay on track and maintain collective purpose
  • Make the decision-making landscape explicit
  • Nourish the proposal mind-set

8. Learning and Development - self-directed and collectively held

• critical principles
  • Self-directed
  • Egalitarian
  • Collective
• How We Are Already Learning and Developing in Community
• Take Charge of Your Own Learning and Development
  • Create Your Own Learning Profile
  • Self-Setting Your Learning Intentions
  • Document Your Current State
  • Removing Permissions
  • Embed Learning Recognition and Rituals into Daily Work Life
    • Sensemaking
      • Hunt for patterns together
      • Keep in mind that everyone has something to learn
      • Keep in mind that being uncomfortable is normal and healthy
    • Feedback
      • Start with yourself
      • Frame feedback collectively
      • Find ways to deal with the discomfort - radical candor method or Rosenberg four-step method (below)
        • Observations
        • Feelings
        • Need
        • Request
    • Trigger Logs
  • Intertwining Work and Learning
• Revisit Performance Reviews and Indicators
  • Metrics and Evaluation Are Determined Collectively
  • Performance as a Horizontal Process
• Summary - learning and development
  • Take charge of your own learning and development
  • Embed learning and development practices in daily work life
  • Revisit performance reviews and indicators

9. Relationships and Conflicts - tending to them together

• Tending to Our Relationships and Conflicts Is Important
• Growing Group Relations
  • Little Rituals
  • Onboard Rituals
  • Team Retreats
• Being Centered and Helping One Another Be Centered *
• Speaking Up Constructively
  • A Communication Model
    • Polite communication
    • Speak your point of view
    • Dialogue
    • Co-creation
  • The Situation-Behavior-Impact Method
  • The Practice
• Embracing Our Differences and Conflict
  • Acknowledge Your Tendencies around Conflict
    • Avoid
    • Accommodate
    • Compromise
    • Compete
    • Collaborate
  • Collective and Systemic Approach
    • Welcome
    • Introduce the talking piece
    • Talking rounds
    • Closing
  • Heal Emotional Wounds
• Summary - relationships and conflicts
  • Grow group relations
  • Be present and help one another be present
  • Speak up constructively
  • Acknowledge your tendencies around conflict
  • Collective and systemic approach to conflict
  • Heal emotional wounds

10. Where Do You Go from Here? - tapping in to the opportunities that surround you

• Developing Your Practice
• Step 1 - Identify a Practice to Focus On
• Step 2 - Prepare Your Practice
  • levels of practice
    • personal practice
    • informal practice
    • trial practices
• Step 3 - Invite Others In
  • Say nothing
  • Inform others
  • Informally invite
  • Formally invite
  • Propose and decide together
• Step 4 - Practice -- Participate and Lead
• Step 5 - Reflect and Learn
  • Hierarchical bias
  • Personal leadership
  • Invitation
  • Power
  • Trust
• Practice, Practice, Practice

Appendix - Percolab's Generative Decision-Making Process

Percolab's Guide

• Ripeness
• Proposal Version 1
• Clarifications
• Reactions
• Proposal Version 2
• Objections
• Visual Confirmation

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Index

About the Author