Humanocracy - Creating Organisations As Amazing As the People Inside Them, by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini

I first met Gary Hamel over 20 years ago at a Human Resources conference in Harrogate, UK.  When I say “met”, I was sat some distance away in the plenary audience, with about 3,000 other delegates, so met is probably stretching the point.  It was though one of those keynotes that made the hair on your neck stand-up.  He was passionate, incisive, armed with real-world data and seemed angry with me personally for working for an organisation which had failed so miserably to inspire and engage the vast majority its people.  Hamel memorably said “Most organisations are not getting the passion, creativity and initiative out of their people. They get intelligence, diligence and obedience – but you can get that from a cocker spaniel.”  Two decades later, I have had the pleasure to meet and work with Professor Gary Hamel at London Business School, and his verve, conviction and way with words remains undiluted.  

Humanocracy, co-written with Michele Zanini, is a hugely impressive book and a manifesto for a radically different kind of organisation, management style and approach; one so far beyond the common experience of many employees, it could risk reading like a fantasy utopian piece.  But then having made the case for WHY organisations need to change (the sapping burden of bureaucracy, the untapped innovation and creativity, the patently moral case for making work more engaging, not dispiriting and de-humanising), Hamel begins to substantiate his case in the real world, and it becomes not only believable, but compelling.  He cites Morning Star, Newcor and South West Airlines in the US, Vinci and Michelen in France, Haier in China, Handelsbanken in Sweden and Buurtzorg in the Netherlands.  These are the exceptions that prove the rule, a new vanguard of organisations (and leaders) who have adopted a series of protocols and an approach to engaging and unleashing their people that is profoundly different.  

The essence of this difference takes some detailed exploration and Hamel codifies the common attributes though a series of guiding principles; Ownership, Markets, Meritocracy, Community, Openness, Experimentation and (a more challenging section on) Paradox.   The depth and breadth of the concepts take some consuming, but this is serious stuff – not a flippant skim over the issues, but explored with real rigour and insight, challenge and grounded context.  The section on Experimentation is practical, clear and concise and the tools in the second half of the book – wittily sign-posted ‘Start Here’ - on how you can personally ‘detox’, build an experiment, design a Hackathon, and build some coalition around fresh ideas, is really good and its worth wading through the tougher Principles section to get to the varied toolkit he provides.   

Hamel is one of the leading strategy, management and enterprise leadership writers, teachers, thinkers and consultants on the planet, so there are no surprises here; he has written (another) great book.  The cover of the book is suitably adorned in eloquent quotes from some of the greatest minds in business thinking and leadership – including, Stanley McCrystal, Marc Benioff, Adam Grant and Amy Edmondson, so there is little doubt we’re in thoughtful, hard to impress company here. The book is likely to grow in popularity as Gary hits the speaker circuit again – as beyond his, there are a paucity of radical ideas about management around, and this is a powerful manifesto which CEO’s, HR Directors and leaders with an interest in innovation will benefit hugely from reading. 

The more interesting thing though is that the book is only part of the story.  Gary is determined to make smart thinking more accessible. It’s in keeping with one of his Humanocracy mandates, that all companies should educate their employees about business and value creation, so they act and think more like owners.  So, with the book you also get access to a great free online course, with hours of materials, videos, models, exercises and detox scoresheets.  And that ‘gift’ of outreach is in turn part of a bigger initiative he describes as The Human Movement – a new global collaborative effort to transform our thinking and approach to management; “the organizational equivalent of the Human Cell Atlas or the International Brain Laboratory”. His ambition is unashamedly bold, and he argues, the movement starts with every reader of the book, to seize in themselves the opportunity to behave like a “post-bureaucratic” leader.  When I finished Humanocracy, I was back in that cavernous hall in Harrogate, feeling again, personally responsible for making something happen. 

John Dore