Self-Managing Teams & Organizations

I love this company Semco, and the book “The Seven Day Weekend”. I’m a complete believer in working to design teams and organizations that are as self-managing as possible. Not only because you get a better culture and results, but it also frees you up to focus on proactively investing your team, versus reactively managing issues.

If you connect with this summary, the book is completely worth reading (link is below).

Most important, success is not measured only in profit and growth.

Strange, eh? My summary may make Semco sound like a company with an offbeat management style that wouldn’t succeed anywhere else. Nevertheless, hundreds of corporate leaders from around the world have visited Sao Paulo to find out what makes us tick. The visitors are curious about Semco because they want what we have–huge growth in spite of a fluctuating economy, unique market niches, rising profits, highly motivated employees, low turnover, diverse products, and service areas.

Our visitors want to understand how Semco has increased its annual revenue between 1994 and 2003 from $35 million a year to $212 million when I–the company’s largest shareholder– rarely attend meetings and almost never make decisions. They want to know how my employees, with a show of hands, can veto new product ideas or scrap whole business ventures.“