“The question is not how you can make better rules, but how can you support teams in finding the best solution.  How can you strengthen the possibilities of the team members so that they need the least amount of direction setting from above?”

Jos De Block

“When success is measured solely in terms of money and recognition, when growth and the bottom line are the only thing that count, when the only successful life is the one that reaches the top, we are bound to experience a sense of emptiness in our lives.”

Frederic Laloux,  Reinventing Organizations

“When you force people into slots you get slot shaped contributions. You want to turn sheep into shepherds.”

Drew Williams

“If you create an environment where the people truly participate, you don’t need control. They know what needs to be done and they do it. And the more that people will devote themselves to your cause on a voluntary basis, a willing basis, the fewer hierarchies and control mechanisms you need.”

Herb Kelleher

“Hierarchy of human capabilities at work. 1 obedience, 2 diligence, 3 expertise, 4 initiative, 5 creativity, 6 passion.  1, 2 and 3 can be rewarded externally by incentives or demands.  4, 5, and 6 are internally driven and can’t be demanded or required.  They are gifts that can’t be commanded.”

Gary Hamel, What Matters Now

“How many policies exist just to preserve the fiction that the higher ups are in control?  How many rules enforce standardization at the expense of initiative and passion while delivering few if any benefits?”

Gary Hamel, What Matters Now

“When you force people into slots you get slot shaped contributions. You want to turn sheep into shepherds.”

Drew Williams

“High Performance is less a matter of doing something… but rather being fully and intentionally what we already are: a self-organizing system.”

Harrison Owen, Wave Rider

“Passion alone = flashy all sizzle and no steak.  Responsibility alone = simply boring.  Passion + Responsibility = Authentic Leadership.”

Harrison Owen, Wave Rider

“How Many policies exist just to preserve the fiction that the higher ups are in control?  How many rules enforce standardization at the expense of initiative and passion while delivering few if any benefits?”

Blair Vernon

The informal organization which does not appear on any organizational chart consists of the informal contacts among themselves that employees use to get things done.

Gary Dressier

“Let’s take golf to start.  As a golfer you have a clear goal: to get the ball in a series of very small holes, with fewer tries than anyone else.  If you weren’t playing a game you’d achieve this goal the most efficient way possible: you’d walk right up to the hole and drop the ball in with your hand.  What makes Golf a Game is that you willingly agree to stand really far away from each hole and swing at the ball with a club.  Golf is engaging exactly because you along with the other players have agreed to make the work more challenging than it has any reasonable right to be.”

Jane McGonigal, Reality is Broken
Read my post on Reality is Broken.

“The prevailing positive-psychology theory that we are the one and only source of our own happiness isn’t just a metaphor.  It is a biological fact.  Our brains and bodies produce neurochemicals and physiological sensations that we experience, in different quantities and combinations, as pleasure, enjoyment, satisfaction, ecstasy, contentment, love, and every other kind of happiness.  And positive psychologists have shown that we don’t have to wait for life to trigger these chemicals and sensations for us.  We can trigger them ourselves by… undertaking a difficult challenge… accomplishing something very hard for us…making someone laugh…or…being part of something larger than ourselves that has lasting significance beyond our individual lives.”

Jane McGonigal, Reality is Broken
Read my post on Reality is Broken.

“Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.”

Bernard Suits

Everyone’s a manager here.  The job of managing includes planning, organizing, directing, staffing, and control, and everyone at Morning Star is expected to do all of these things.

Chris Rufer

It was a whole different business, nothing like I’d ever known, like night and day… Thirty seconds of play and I am on a whole new plane of being, all of my synapses wailing.

David Sudnow about playing the video game Breakout

Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Peter Drucker