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1-Page Summary of An Everyone Culture

Overview

A new book by Robert Kegan, Lisa Lahey, Matthew Miller, Andy Fleming and Deborah Helsing is an academic description of unconventional employee management systems implemented by three example businesses. ArcLight Cinemas uses a DDO system for its employees. Bridgewater Associates and Next Jump also use the same system to manage their staffs.

Conventional companies don’t allow their employees to learn and grow as fast as possible. They mask mistakes, avoid giving negative feedback, and protect weaknesses by moving the employee sideways into new roles. In contrast, a DDO (Designated Driver Organization) encourages its employees to constantly improve themselves through a focus on learning from mistakes, growing in areas of weakness, and making time for reflection during work hours. A DDO is an organization that allows people to grow mentally well beyond the point where they physically mature.

Three DDO-style companies believe their success is due to a culture that focuses on employees at all levels. Companies can implement DDO practices and still see some benefits, as long as early adopters embrace the developmental focus. A company can assess its progress with implementing DDO processes by asking employees about their comfort in the environment and whether they’ve made progress toward personal development.

Key Takeaways

In the past, most employees have tried to hide their weaknesses and cover up their mistakes. However, in a developmental organization, employees are encouraged to learn from each other’s mistakes and push themselves beyond their comfort zones.

Previous assumptions about human development were wrong. Psychologists have learned that people can continue to develop in adulthood, but they exist on one of three plateaus of capabilities for change and information processing. People in a developmental organization (DDO) are constantly learning from each other and building relationships based on trust and respect.

Many companies allow their employees to see how they’re doing and what decisions are being made.

The DDO encourages all employees to give feedback, including people who outrank them. All feedback must be considered seriously.

DDOs (designated doers) push employees to learn new roles and responsibilities.

You can’t just add the characteristics of a DDO to any old organization. A successful DDO is built on experimentation and commitment from every level of the organization. To build this, DDOs use tools that allow employees to collect and share data on each other’s performance as well as mandatory social interactions.

There are two ways to achieve organizational change. The first is by evaluating obstacles that prevent someone from achieving a goal, and the second way is by implementing customized programs in an organization to introduce DDO practices along with regular progress assessments.

Key Takeaway 1: In a conventional business culture, employees spend a large portion of their time hiding their weaknesses and covering up their mistakes.

People in organizations usually don’t view their mistakes as learning opportunities. They’re so busy hiding those mistakes that they end up being more unproductive than if they were working a second job on the side. People tend to make the same mistake over and over again because of this lack of motivation to learn from their past errors.

In the past, employees had to be experts in their jobs because they were responsible for every step of a process. They didn’t need managers to oversee them. However, in today’s world, employees are only responsible for smaller tasks and don’t have time to learn about the big picture. As a result, most companies treat personal development as an afterthought and focus on developing leaders instead of regular employees.