Never mind the bosses : hastening the death of deference for business success

Over the last few decades, power, information and resources have moved from being concentrated in the hands of a few, to being disbursed across many. We need look no further than events on the world stage to see the heat signature of this – from the arrival of Wikileaks, the Arab Spring of 2011 and the Occupy movements, to the social media revolution and flashpoints such as the British Members of Parliament expenses scandal. All are examples of deep change occurring. This book is about what this means for the workplace and for management. The proposition offered here is that our organisations need to catch up, and that the “death of deference” that we are seeing elsewhere in society needs to be accelerated in the workplace. Systems of deference slow down organisational performance. Deference prevents organisations from learning. It stops them from being agile, innovative and ethical. Deference is the enemy of organisational success and it needs to be dismantled so that in its place we can build modern organisations with a new breed of managers and leaders. This book offers a solution to a problem that belongs in the last century, and a game plan for nothing short of a workplace revolution. "If deference is dead, this book is about the resurrection of the effective manager in a world where nothing is quite the way it used to be. Powerful and thought-provoking from start to finish." - Jeremy Vine, BBC Presenter and Author “__Never Mind the Bosses__ is a refreshing type of management book, it advocates that deference to authority figures needs to go if we are to have engaged workforces.” - Cary L. Cooper, CBE, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University Management School "An engaging and entertaining romp through the post punk world. By going beyond the boundaries of most business books, Ryde gives us all food for thought about how organisations are, or are not, dealing with a rapidly changing society and workforce." - Jo Owen, bestselling author of ‘How to Manage’ and 'How to Lead' “If you are looking for a book that will shake up your thinking about how to improve your organization’s performance – or worried that your competitors will find it first! – try this one.” - Professor Dutch Leonard, Harvard Business School & Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government

Over the last few decades, power, information and resources have moved from being concentrated in the hands of a few, to being disbursed across many. We need look no further than events on the world stage to see the heat signature of this – from the arrival of Wikileaks, the Arab Spring of 2011 and the Occupy movements, to the social media revolution and flashpoints such as the British Members of Parliament expenses scandal. All are examples of deep change occurring.

This book is about what this means for the workplace and for management. The proposition offered here is that our organisations need to catch up, and that the "death of deference" that we are seeing elsewhere in society needs to be accelerated in the workplace.

Systems of deference slow down organisational performance. Deference prevents organisations from learning. It stops them from being agile, innovative and ethical. Deference is the enemy of organisational success and it needs to be dismantled so that in its place we can build modern organisations with a new breed of managers and leaders. This book offers a solution to a problem that belongs in the last century, and a game plan for nothing short of a workplace revolution.

"If deference is dead, this book is about the resurrection of the effective manager in a world where nothing is quite the way it used to be. Powerful and thought-provoking from start to finish."

-Jeremy Vine,BBC Presenter and Author

" Never Mind the Bosses is a refreshing type of management book, it advocates that deference to authority figures needs to go if we are to have engaged workforces."

- Cary L. Cooper, CBE, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University Management School

"An engaging and entertaining romp through the post punk world. By going beyond the boundaries of most business books, Ryde gives us all food for thought about how organisations are, or are not, dealing with a rapidly changing society and workforce."

- Jo Owen, bestselling author of 'How to Manage' and 'How to Lead'

"If you are looking for a book that will shake up your thinking about how to improve your organization's performance – or worried that your competitors will find it first! – try this one."

- Professor Dutch Leonard, Harvard Business School & Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government

Over the last few decades, power, information and resources have moved from being concentrated in the hands of a few, to being disbursed across many. We need look no further than events on the world stage to see the heat signature of this & ndash; from the arrival of Wikileaks, the Arab Spring of 2011 and the Occupy movements, to the social media revolution and flashpoints such as the British Members of Parliament expenses scandal. All are examples of deep change occurring. This book is about what this means for the workplace and for management. The proposition offered here is that our organisations need to catch up, and that the "death of deference" that we are seeing elsewhere in society needs to be accelerated in the workplace. Systems of deference slow down organisational performance. Deference prevents organisations from learning. It stops them from being agile, innovative and ethical. Deference is the enemy of organisational success and it needs to be dismantled so that in its place we can build modern organisations with a new breed of managers and leaders. This book offers a solution to a problem that belongs in the last century, and a game plan for nothing short of a workplace revolution."If deference is dead, this book is about the resurrection of the effective manager in a world where nothing is quite the way it used to be. Powerful and thought-provoking from start to finish."--Jeremy Vine, BBC Presenter and Author"Never Mind the Bosses is a refreshing type of management book, it advocates that deference to authority figures needs to go if we are to have engaged workforces."--Cary L. Cooper, CBE, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University Management School"An engaging and entertaining romp through the post punk world. By going beyond the boundaries of most business books, Ryde gives us all food for thought about how organisations are, or are not, dealing with a rapidly changing society and workforce."--Jo Owen, bestselling author of 'How to Manage' and 'How to Lead'"If you are looking for a book that will shake up your thinking about how to improve your organization's performance & ndash; or worried that your competitors will find it first! & ndash; try this one."--Professor Dutch Leonard, Harvard Business School ; Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government Over the last few decades, power, information and resources have moved from being concentrated in the hands of a few, to being disbursed across many. We need look no further than events on the world stage to see the heat signature of this & ndash; from the arrival of Wikileaks, the Arab Spring of 2011 and the Occupy movements, to the social media revolution and flashpoints such as the British Members of Parliament expenses scandal. All are examples of deep change occurring. This book is about what this means for the workplace and for management. The proposition offered here is that our organisations need to catch up, and that the "death of deference" that we are seeing elsewhere in society needs to be accelerated in the workplace. Systems of deference slow down organisational performance. Deference prevents organisations from learning. It stops them from being agile, innovative and ethical. Deference is the enemy of organisational success and it needs to be dismantled so that in its place we can build modern organisations with a new breed of managers and leaders. This book offers a solution to a problem that belongs in the last century, and a game plan for nothing short of a workplace revolution."If deference is dead, this book is about the resurrection of the effective manager in a world where nothing is quite the way it used to be. Powerful and thought-provoking from start to finish."--Jeremy Vine, BBC Presenter and Author"Never Mind the Bosses is a refreshing type of management book, it advocates that deference to authority figures needs to go if we are to have engaged workforces."--Cary L. Cooper, CBE, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University Management School"An engaging and entertaining romp through the post punk world. By going beyond the boundaries of most business books, Ryde gives us all food for thought about how organisations are, or are not, dealing with a rapidly changing society and workforce."--Jo Owen, bestselling author of 'How to Manage' and 'How to Lead'"If you are looking for a book that will shake up your thinking about how to improve your organization's performance & ndash; or worried that your competitors will find it first! & ndash; try this one."- Professor Dutch Leonard, Harvard Business School ; Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government Title page 7 Copyright page 8 Contents 9 Preface 11 Acknowledgements 15 Chapter 1: A New Dynamic for Modern Management 19 Terms of deference 21 A quick summary for busy people 22 Starting the change process 24 The SPEED model 25 Symbols 25 Psychological contract 26 Executive powers 28 Engagement 29 Discourse 30 A call to everyone and, in particular, a call to management 33 Chapter 2: Make My Day, Punk! 35 Swearing, blasphemy and other obscenities 36 Stencils, spray cans and cut-outs 39 Nietzsche would have been proud 42 The DIY (do it yourself) ethic 44 And the battle lines are drawn 47 How did the establishment express its anger? 48 The punk movement in the cold light of day 50 And what of punk today? 53 Chapter 3: The Deference Contract 55 A brief examination of the deference dynamic 55 It takes two to tango 58 A comfortable dissonance between public and private spheres 60 Taking the lid off the deference relationship 61 And even though the deference contract lies on the floor with muddy boot prints on it . . . 64 An unwillingness to cede power and privilege 64 An unwillingness to take responsibility 66 Efficiency in decision-making 67 The allure of order 69 An asymmetry of knowledge 70 Time for a closer look 71 Chapter 4: The Drag Effect 73 The octopus: A metaphor for the modern operating environment 79 Six ways in which deference is a drag on organisational success 82 1. The removal of responsibility 82 2. Putting the brakes on innovation 89 3. Consent and evade 97 4. Deference and the ethical deficit 109 5. An organisation divided 118 6. An astonishing waste of talent and resources 120 Chapter 5: F**k You, I Won’t Do What You Tell Me 127 The fight for individualism 128 Collective uprisings 134 David and Goliath battles 140 Enablers, catalysts and the means for change 145 Right to information laws and the transparency agenda 147 Social media, technology and the Internet 148 Demographics, Generation Y and beyond 152 Chapter 6: Creating a New Dynamic 155 1. Symbols 156 2. Psychological contract 164 Understand what you are asking for 167 Say what you mean, and mean what you say 168 Show that you value what you are asking for 169 3. Executive powers 172 4. Engagement 178 5. Discourse 187 How we talk and think together 188 Direct, level, adult–adult conversation 193 Like turkeys voting for Christmas? 195 Index 199

“Never Mind the Bosses is a refreshing type of management book, it advocates that deference to authority figures needs to go if we are to have engaged workforces.”—Cary L. Cooper, CBE, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University Management School

“An engaging and entertaining romp through the post punk world. By going beyond the boundaries of most business books, Ryde gives us all food for thought about how organisations are, or are not, dealing with a rapidly changing society and workforce.”—Jo Owen, bestselling author of How to Manage and How to Lead

“If you are looking for a book that will shake up your thinking about how to improve your organisation’s performance – or worried that your competitors will find it first! – try this one.”—Professor Dutch Leonard, Harvard Business School & Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government

“I love this book! It turns the traditional leadership concepts upside down. A must read for anybody who wants to capture the power of their whole organisation.”—Sally Martin, Vice President Commercial Service, Shell International Petroleum Company

“Never Mind the Bosses makes a compelling and absorbing case for replacing unquestioning deference in organisations with the need for everyone to take up not only their rights, but critically, their responsibilities for the greater good.”—Kai Peters, CEO, Ashridge Business School

“A powerful reminder that deference has no place in an accelerating world, where only the most innovative organisations will thrive and prosper.”—Ben Page, Chief Executive, Ipsos MORI

“A riveting read – unexpected quotes from the Damned and Donald Rumsfeld grabbed my attention and held it – bags of leadership insights in here, entertainingly and memorably presented."—Iain Lobban, Director GCHQ

Content: Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii CHAPTER 1 A New Dynamic for Modern Management 1 CHAPTER 2 Make My Day, Punk! 17 CHAPTER 3 The Deference Contract 37 CHAPTER 4 The Drag Effect 55 CHAPTER 5 F**k You, I Won't Do What You Tell Me 109 CHAPTER 6 Creating a New Dynamic 137 Index 181