Roeland Polet on LinkedIn: U.S. CEO Bill Anderson Replaces Managers with Employee Teams to Rejuvenate… (2024)

Thanks Alina Polonskaia for sharing this fascinating article. Change enablement, high-performing team effectiveness and mindset shifts will be key to the success of this new organizational approach. Bill Anderson, I’ll be routing for your success.

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This is an interesting case study to watch as it develops with Bayer, a 160-year old conglomerate, eliminating most of its management roles and moving to self-directed and self-managed teams for its ~100,000 employees. I have many questions. Do self-managed teams work at this size and scale? Can self-managed teams work within a legacy corporation? How will Bayer's existing culture support or sabotage this operating model? How will they manage risks, particularly in their regulated industries? What does this mean for career advancement and growth within the Bayer companies? 🤔 I am looking forward to the learnings regarding operating models, change management, leadership, and future of work. Call me skeptical but curious and optimistic (easier to be as an observer and not an employee or investor).

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In a bold move that could redefine corporate management, Bayer CEO Bill Anderson is pioneering a novel approach aimed at empowering employees and cutting bureaucratic red tape. Amidst declining share prices and a pressing need for a company turnaround, Anderson's strategy diverges from traditional management frameworks by drastically reducing the number of managers and delegating more decision-making powers to the workforce. Dubbed "dynamic shared ownership," this plan involves forming self-directed teams across various departments, encouraging project collaboration for 90-day cycles before reshuffling. This approach aims to enhance efficiency and innovation within the 160-year-old pharmaceutical giant and also seeks to trim costs significantly, with an anticipated saving of 2 billion euros.This radical shift is necessary because of a series of challenges facing Bayer, including a significant debt load, reduced dividends, and the financial aftermath of the Monsanto acquisition. Anderson is pushing for a cultural transformation within Bayer, and he has gained a fresh perspective from his tenure at Roche and wasinspired by management consultant Gary Hamel. By fostering an environment where teams self-organize and adopt roles such as "visionaries," "architects," "catalysts," and "coaches," Anderson envisions a more agile and responsive organization. This move away from hierarchical decision-making is a gamble that Anderson believes will not only salvage Bayer's current predicament but also set a new standard for corporate efficiency and employee empowerment, potentially revolutionizing how large companies operate.#leadership

Companiesof every size are struggling with howbest organize their teams, and we are seeing this play out right now with Bayer. What would you do if you were an exec at Bayer?I'll share my thoughts after a briefsummary.The WSJ had a piece over the weekendabout how Bill Anderson, the CEO of the 160-year old companybest known for inventing aspirin is attemptingto reinvent its workforce in the face of mountingdebt, a recently cut dividend, and potentially billions of dollars in payouts for lawsuitsrelated to the weedkiller Roundup. How do you re-envision a workforce that steeped in decades and generations of doing things the way they always have been done?Anderson has dubbed his plan "dynamic shared ownership" and uses terms like "visionaries'', "architects'', "catalysts'', and "coaches" to describe how employees from various departments will be recruited to teams that decide on projects and work together for 90 days. Then, workers regroup in different configurations for theirnext undertaking. The WSJ reports he ultimatelyaims to operate 5,000 to 6,000 self-directed teams as an undisclosed number of managerialpositionswill be cut as the remaining managers move from leading teams of roughly six to upwards of 20.Does this massive transformation become an example for others to follow, or instead blow up like other corporate experiments?We've seen attempts like this before (think Zappos and their attempt at a decentralized, no-boss system). If I was an exec at Bayer, the biggest thing I would be thinking about is how this is not just rolling out something new...it's also about dismantling the old ways of working. Old habits die hard, and the leadership team will need to actively be on guard against the resurrectionof the old mindset creeping back in.Other themes I would focus on:2. Find your internal champions and front line leaders who will help drive this change.3.Consider the pace for change. Is this the only initiative happening at the time?Balancing the shift to a flat structure with other organizational changes can be overwhelming, leading to misalignments and misunderstanding.4. Focus on thehuman aspects of the transition. Emphasize the importance of effective communication, training, and leadership in influencing the organization’s culture and its people.5.Adapting external ideas to the internal culture. Study what did and didn't work at orgs that tried something similar.6. Avoid jargon creep.Instead of facilitating clarity, these new terms can become barriers. Bayer is already using terms like, "architects" and catalysts...be careful or that jargon will take over and you will lose people (see point 4).7. Plan for areskilling requirement.As roles evolve, so too must skills and it's unlikely the current workforce has the ability to simply start operating in this new model.Good hunting, Bill Anderson and Bayer. Photo credit: Wall Street JournalLink to article in comments

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Be(com)ing a manager used to be considered an achievement. Often used as a promotion (even though being great at what you do does not automatically mean you can inspire a team to reach for better accomplishments), middle management's role has been questioned from the bottom and is getting (in this case) chopped off from the top. It is now up to the working forces to organize and get things done (better? faster?). Hopefully, the efficiency will improve (at least as fast?) as the costs are being cut. Time (and stock price) will tell.

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“Dynamic shared ownership” - I love the companies who try to test these concepts out. The world demands that decisions are made quicker. So does employees. As the article also eludes to, employees are well educated. AI will help make decisions too. The middle manager will need to be the facilitator - which we also describe in our book: “Reimagining the Value Chain - A Regenerative approach.Learn more https://lnkd.in/da5CScbs#strategy #sustainability #action #leadership

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Interesting introduction to Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO) by Gary Hamel, Bill Anderson and others. This alternative organisational approach should spike the attention of many young, ambitious employees that quickly find themselves frustrated by the abrupt reality of heavy managership, as to many managers who loose track of the goal for the sake of budget status quo.This rings even truer to myself and my burocratico phobia. Our societies have been eagerly implementing technological innovations as cures for most societal ailments but in contrast, we have been very slow at exploring the implementation of social, organisational or political innovations. In parallel, qualitative metrics, in contrast to quantitative ones, have been eagerly discussed but scarcely implemented in structuring policies and organisations. I believe that many parallels can be made to this humanocracy concept, from which comes to mind a Harvard Business School case study and interview by Bill Taylor on the successful vision of the former President of Swatch Group, Nicola Hayek.His philosophy consisted in believing that local manufacturing could outcompete globalized outsourcing by investing and nurturing human innovation locally. The challenge of manufacturing anything in a very expensive country (Switzerland) was seen with international disdain. But his very successful implementation of this daring vision, lead to manufacturing innovations which rendered their processes cost competitive and had strong ramifications in developping and broading the company’s market (and made famous for saving the Swiss watch industry). Interestingly, this unorthodox approach was applauded by many but rarely emulated elsewhere.Today, a long-time established industrial mastodont is taking on the challenge to bet on the human once again. As a longtime stockholder of Bayer, I applaud this daring change and wish them the best of success which I hope will snowball into other established companies and new upcoming ones to implement not only technological innovations but also more human ones. At least Bayer renewed my interest and restored my trust in their leadership (well done Bill 👍 ).I also ordered the book "Humanocracy" from Gary Hamel (I appreciated his contaminating passion for the subject) and look forward to learning more about these concepts. Link for the DSO seminar:https://lnkd.in/gePZ8e3eLinks for the HBR case study and interview: https://lnkd.in/g9AK8C4d https://lnkd.in/gpdKT9Er#bayer #dso #burocracia #innovation

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Bayer’s radical move should inspire everyone! Now big corporates are also taking the route towards future of work! However, transitioning to shared leadership does not need to be as radical as the one they have chosen at Bayer | Pharmaceuticals Maybe so if you wait until you are in dire straits to look towards more progressive organisational and leadership models. But you have a choice! Shared leadership - i.e. flattening hierarchy, distributing power and decision making authority and allowing employees more room to manoeuvre - is already applied in many workplaces around the world. The ambitious organisations I work with (and the ones I researched in writing my book on the subject) have started the transition in due time, allowing them to apply a so-called integrated model where you integrate shared leadership while maintaining the existing leadership structure. The role of the managers change (in time quite significantly) and as teams grow the competencies to self organise, the need for managers will in all likelihood decline - in time! But it’s an evolving process! In other words, there is a choice between a radical or a gradual process. It’s a matter of how long you wait until you too acknowledge that the future calls for a different and less hierarchical and more shared leadership model!#teal #sharedleadership #whentheteamistheboss#djoefforlag AGORA - organisationer gentænkt https://lnkd.in/d-VNxEAz

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Interesting Story worth reading reflecting:There's often an inverse relationship between organizational success and the health of "invisible corporate culture." By this, I mean the murky undercurrents of hierarchy, bureaucracy, lack of accountability, and a fear of decisive action.In the early days, organizations thrive on innovation and risk-taking. But somewhere along the line, most slip into complacency. Past success breeds a lot of happy passengers(Many layers of organizations with very little accoutability or consequenses) who thrives on hallow narratives. Tough decisions get sidelined and postponed to avoid rocking the boat.The result? Some fail outright. Others shrink to survive ( Familiar Narrative “ Focus on Core” ) . A few disintegrate. And some simply muddle through… The cycle repeats again and again!

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How to revive from a 50% decline in shares? Pharma Giant Bayer says: get rid of middle managers and let employees manage themselves.In a bold move from the pharma giant - Bayer’s Bill Anderson would be letting go of middle managers and cut out 99% of the 1,362 paged corporate handbook, as a drastic measure to contain the declining market cap. This would potentially cut costs by $2 billion.Takeaways:This is a strategic move in trying to move to a more startup-like culture in a 160 year old company. We’ll see more such examples in the near future.Climbing up the corporate ladder would not be the end goal in the coming years. Constantly being able to provide value, would.This is why many tech companies now insist that their managers can get down to actually write some code and help out the junior team members when needed.With more freedom to employees, comes more responsibility. Learning to understand strategy and how to add value as a cog in the machine - and owning the responsibility for the same - all this would come at a much earlier stage in careers.#bayer #leadership #startup #culture #innovation

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