Hi! I hope this email finds you well. It finds me enjoying a snow day. Growing up in the South, I love the snow. It's a rare joy that makes the world stop turning. Sure, some inconveniences come with snow, but I'll take them since it only happens a few times a year. Last year, we didn’t get more than a dusting, so the eight inches currently on the ground feel a little magical.
With snow days comes more time for reading. I finally finished Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness by Frederic Laloux. This book is built on an incredible body of work that is all about non-heirarical, self-managing structures within organizations. The author discusses the evolution of human organizations and highlights types of organizations called Teal Organizations. These evolutionary teal organizations operate based on the idea that humans are intrinsically motivated to do good work when they are equipped and their needs are met. As a Montessori educator, I couldn’t help but draw parallels with the principles in this book and the writings of Maria Montessori.
“In self-managing organizations that have no managers to keep up the pressure, what prevents teams from getting complacent? The short answer: intrinsic motivation, calibrated by peer emulation and market demands.” Reinventing Organizations, pg. 123
Sound familiar? Maria Montessori sure had a lot to say about intrinsic motivation.