{"id":1090,"date":"2025-05-09T10:24:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T10:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/integpartner.com\/en\/?p=1090"},"modified":"2025-12-05T15:14:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:14:53","slug":"self-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/integpartner.com\/en\/self-organization\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Lasse Ramquist, Part 1: Self-organization Doesn\u2019t Have to Lead to Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How do you get a complex organization to pull in the same direction and focus fully on its most important strategic challenges? By unleashing the self-organizing power within the business \u2013 in a controlled manner. This is the core message from our experienced founder, Lasse Ramquist.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lasse knows what he\u2019s talking about \u2013 for over 40 years, he has been helping companies tackle their biggest strategic challenges. Often, this involves revisiting and updating the prevailing management model. He has now compiled four decades of experience in his newly released book Kraftsamla : involvera alla f\u00f6r framg\u00e5ng i en of\u00f6ruts\u00e4gbar v\u00e4rld (Join Forces: Involve Everyone for Success in an Unpredictable World).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how can a leader succeed with this collective effort? Lasse identifies several key areas that are crucial for establishing new habits, mobilizing the entire organization, and awakening employees\u2019 dormant abilities \u2013 thereby creating vitality and dynamic collaboration throughout the entire value chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You highlight that self-organization and a collective effort are two keys to handling today\u2019s escalating complexity \u2013 why is that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 It\u2019s obvious to most people today that our external environment is characterized by both constantly increasing complexity and an accelerating pace of change, <\/em>says Lasse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 This creates immense unpredictability. It is no longer possible to micromanage organizations from the top in the way that once worked. To be successful today, you need to mobilize the collective intelligence. The question is: how do you do that? That\u2019s exactly what I\u2019ve tried to answer in the book.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trust the Local Expertise<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A central principle, according to Lasse, is to place greater trust in the so-called local expertise \u2013 the employees who are closest to the actual challenges. This is where decision-making authority should reside, not necessarily at the top of the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 It\u2019s not about letting go \u2013 on the contrary. It requires a very deliberate effort to create a structure where everyone knows where we\u2019re headed and why \u2013 you need to create arenas for shared understanding, reflection, and joint responsibility.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoid Silo Culture with a Common Language<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another key is breaking up what Lasse calls \u201csilo cultures\u201d \u2013 where different parts of the organization have separate perspectives, languages, and goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 A research and development department sees reality from one perspective, while customer service or production has entirely different viewpoints. If you don\u2019t actively work to bring these perspectives together, your colleagues can easily start to feel like obstacles rather than partners pulling in the same direction.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where you often see a lot of friction in large organizations: people don\u2019t work with<\/em> their colleagues\u2014they make things work despite<\/em> them. Lasse believes the solution lies in making it a cultural habit to consistently shift perspectives in order to enhance mutual understanding. This is the only way to co-create a more complete picture of the full complexity of the reality you\u2019re dealing with, while also paving the way to quickly agree on the best way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This requires a healthy humility towards one\u2019s own perspective and limited viewpoint. Lasse illustrates this with the image of two people looking into a black box through different peepholes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 One sees a circle, the other a rectangle. They are both correct \u2013 from their perspective. But it\u2019s only when they switch places and view reality from the other person\u2019s perspective that they realize what\u2019s in the box is a cylinder. This humility \u2013 the willingness to understand and collaborate \u2013 is absolutely central to a self-organized culture.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build Roundabouts \u2013 Not Traffic Lights<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lasse keeps returning to the metaphor of the roundabout. It illustrates how collaboration can work effectively without central control. In a roundabout, everyone knows the rules, stays alert to each other, and makes decisions in real-time \u2013 traffic flows smoothly without the need for traffic lights or monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated into organizational development, this is about creating structures that enable self-organization. When the rules of the game, transparency, and trust are established, initiatives and decisions can be made closer to the operations\u2014where most of the relevant knowledge resides. This leads to a more responsive, agile, and focused organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building roundabouts, then, becomes a metaphor for designing infrastructures where cooperation, learning, and development occur naturally. Instead of controlling every detail, it\u2019s about creating the conditions for most things to function on their own, even in complex situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You argue that self-organization is a recipe for success \u2013 that sounds a bit paradoxical?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 It may seem so<\/em>, admits Lasse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 And that\u2019s probably because self-organization has gotten a bad reputation. When I started working in the 1980s, many companies experimented with self-managing teams. But much of it failed because the necessary work structures for collaboration and a clear understanding of where we were going and why were not provided.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Lasse describes is not anarchy, but a self-organizing system with clear principles: direction, energy, collaboration, results, and learning. These five keys, inspired by nature\u2019s own processes, are what he believes must be in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Everything that is alive \u2013 from your body to a flock of birds \u2013 organizes itself. It\u2019s not random; there are always a number of system-building fundamentals that must be in place. And we must also understand how we, as an organization, can create similar conditions where people have the freedom to take the actions they see as necessary, but always within the framework of a shared direction.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Core Principles for Creating Self-Organizing Systems:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n