Kommentarer til: Learning a lesson – and becoming stronger

Af: Trine-Maria

Trine-Maria — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:10:43 +0000

Jakob – This do-ocratic group management is probably only possible in the phase we are in right now and I am sure that we too at some point will look for more leadership/management. But I really think that the lesson I have learned now is that we will have to be a lot more specific about what our company really needs to become stronger – before we go there again!

Jørgen – I think you gave part of the explanation – I am almost certain that I had expectations that weren’t clear – not even to me.

One of the lessons I have learned is that if we really want to work together as a team (with or without a formal manager or CEO) we have to spend more time together aligning our thoughts, sharing expectations and learning from each other.

And the only problem with that is that it means we might have to set aside other things (for instance to spend all of our time engaging in projects with our much beloved clients) – and to me that will be the challenge – realizing that building the business is also real work :-)

Af: Jørgen Toldsted

Jørgen Toldsted — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:56:42 +0000

Very interesting blog! I would like to know a little more on the: there is no easy way to combine the work of a group of passionate idealists with more traditional management. I know a lot of places where the combination of idealist and leadership/management is working very well, but havent yet seen a place where you really could do without leadership/management. Perhaps the problem lies in more traditional management or perhaps in We hired a CEO to come inside and fix things i.e. unclear (and unrealistic?) expectations?

Af: Andreas

Andreas — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:39:50 +0000

As part of the Socialsquare team, I’m happy to agree with all of the above. I was sad to see Natasha go, as she is a very engaging and confident leader. But as Thomas and Trine-Maria says, the energy and the idealistic drive in our team really thrives in the open space we have now.

It’s true that issues may well arise with more people in the team, but one of the lessons we’ve learned here is that to carefully consider how we scale this model.

Another issue that we’re still grappling with is blogging more on our work, and that will certainly become more important as our numbers increase…

Af: Jakob Diness

Jakob Diness — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:09:39 +0000

What a good blog on the difficult area of management/no-management.

Although I doubt that you can run a company in an open-style do-ocratic approach if you grow even more, it is very interesting to discuss what works and what do not work.

I am a thorough believer of bottom-up leadership, but is on the other hand also convinced that in practice a CEO can play an active role in “profiling” the company for example.

I, myself, am involved in a software company with about 10 people, where we also have to work out the details of growing and changing the culture over time. This can be difficult at times, but possible with good leaderhip.

Best regards

Jakob Diness