Freedom, equality, brotherhood: what are they, «turquoise» companies?

Russian business, having emerged in the 90s as a teenager, continues to be fond of fashionable things and tries different trends by the teeth. Consulting agencies offer, one after another, magic recipes for prosperity, either according to the Japanese or the American management system. And the employees only have time to study the new rules of lean production, or they are looking for the values ​​by which they will now have to live and work.

There has been a lot of talk about turquoise companies lately. What it is?

It all started with the idea of ​​spiral dynamics, according to which the development of a person goes through several stages (indicated by different colors). This concept was proposed by the American psychologist Claire Graves in the middle of the last century, and in 2014 by the Belgian Frederic Lalu¹ applied it to companies: in development, they can go through the five colors and reach the highest step — turquoise. On it, business processes are built on the principle of self-organization, they are tied not to economic indicators, but to universal goals, and the motivation of employees does not depend on the social package at all, but on the possibility of self-realization.

This idea has enchanted the world. Russia did not stand aside either. And now Russian businessmen are rebuilding their business in the direction of «turquoise», and employees of all Russia dream of freedom without bosses and personal development. How realistic are these hopes?

Color differentiation

The concept of Lalu defines seven stages of development of organizations throughout the history of mankind, today there are five of them. The first is impulsive (red). “She has a directive, authoritarian top-down management style: do as I say, do it,” explains business coach, coach Anastasia Shemonaeva. — Everyone has their own area of ​​responsibility, a step left or right is prohibited. Employees are perceived solely as cogs, as a resource. They are squeezed out and thrown away as useless. The owner doesn’t care if they like it or not. Employees in this business model are deeply unhappy, so there is a lot of turnover.”

The second is the conformist stage (amber or yellow). “An example is an army built according to certain rules and the letter of the law,” the coach continues. “These are stable regulated hierarchies.”

The third type of companies is competitive (orange stage). “In the conditions of entering the market, when you need to offer your own product, different from many others, you have to stand out with something, come up with something new. And this is impossible without giving employees a certain amount of freedom and authority,” Anastasia Shemonayeva emphasizes. “Therefore, they are no longer perceived as cogs, but as carriers of ideas that can be useful to business.”

Here, employees are already beginning to be involved in the development of companies, but this is not yet the peak, but only the middle of the spiral.

Paradise Level Five

But we can expect that the manager will look at us as a full-fledged player who has not only duties, but also rights, we can only work in a company that has reached the fourth stage — pluralistic (green). Here we can have our own view on business development, and they will expect us to be willing to invest time, competencies and soul. This is where the value system comes into play.

“In a green company, the selection of employees will no longer be based on minimum competencies, as in the red one, but on a value scale: whether this person is ours or not,” Anastasia Shemonayeva notes. This is the first «conscious» level of development of the five existing today.

And finally, the top rung is turquoise (so-called evolutionary) companies. “Internally, it functions like a living organism. Try to say what is more important for you — an arm or a leg, a right ear or a left eye, — explains Anastasia Shemonaeva. — It does not have a vertical hierarchy, it has a matrix structure, all business processes are set up in such a way that there is no need for a controller and a manager in the generally accepted sense. If there is a chief, then he is more of an ideologue — the one who inspires, leads the company behind him. And it is not money that is valued, but something else.”

You cannot attract an employee of this company with bonuses, bonuses — this is a tool, not a goal. He wants to benefit others, society, the planet. I want to develop, mastering new skills, and discover myself. And there are already such companies in Russia, it is enough to enter the phrase “list of turquoise companies” into the browser search engine. Many aspire to be. But so far the majority of Russian business representatives are in the red zone.

Get out of the dark

The authoritarian style of governance was inherited by modern Russia from the Soviet Union. But in the first quarter of the XNUMXst century, this style seems like an atavism even to the businessmen themselves. “When owners notice that their business is stagnating, that creative employees are not coming to them, they begin to change the culture in order to become attractive to those who want to work in a new way,” notes business consultant Konstantin Kharsky. “Modern youth is simply not ready to work for money. They work for interesting tasks, for movement.”

They can change the culture of a company. “But often only the packaging changes, and the inside remains old,” he continues, “executives order a list of values ​​from a consulting company for big money and offer employees to live by them from tomorrow.” Sometimes large-scale surveys of all employees are conducted in an attempt to find out these values. And from Monday they begin to implement.

You can hang a leaflet with six beautiful smart words in each department, but this will not make the company different, the expert is convinced. There should be only one value. Sometimes it is already there, just the manager and employees are not aware of it, but you can help formulate it.

“I know one regional cleaning company that has become one of the most sought-after throughout Russia, deriving its value: their work does not require control by the client, after their cleaning there will never be rubbish swept under the carpet.”

But, alas, it is not so easy to find employees who meet this criterion in our large country. Many still remain with the “maybe it will work” mentality. And the process of «growing up» and awareness in Russian business will continue, according to the business coach, for a very long time.

Goodbye, control

Despite the objective need for change, development is resisted not only by many employees, but also by business owners. “The founders of large corporations say to me: “What self-governing organization? Then I won’t be able to control everyone, ”says Anastasia Shemonaeva. But the market capacity is limited. Sooner or later, the market will require businesses to provide new products and ideas. This is not possible in the red zone. If every company owner and manager puts their energy into personal development, then more and more turquoise organizations will appear in business.”

“Any typology is just a map, with the help of which its author proposes to explore the territory,” Konstantin Kharsky is convinced. “But the map is not equal to the territory. We have an ineradicable craving for the West. Should I copy everything? We already went through something like this in the XNUMXth century with one party that divided people into higher and lower castes. She had many supporters. And we know what a global catastrophe this has resulted in.”

¹ F. Lalu Discovering the Organizations of the Future (MIF, 2017).