The Open Organization: Igniting passion and performance - Book summary

1. The Open
Organization:
Igniting passion and
performance
-
Book summary

3. Red Hat
• Jim Whitehurst – CEO “Red Hat”
• biggest Open Source software
company in the world
• 85 offices in 35 countries
• +7000 employees
• Revenue of over 1 billion dollar
• Jim wrote about the way they work at
Red hat and described it as an “open
organization”
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4. Open source software  Open organization
• Open source principles
• Open exchange
• Participation
• Rapid prototyping
• Meritocracy
• Community
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5. The open source principles
• Open exchange
• When everyone has access to all the
information, we are able to learn more
and create new ideas
• Participation
• Free collaboration opens more doors than
working on your own
• Rapid prototyping
• Learn by doing
• Feel free to experiment
• Meritocracy
• The best idea wins, no matter the
hierarchical place/background of the
person
• The more respect you win from your
peers, the more credit you get to
innovate
• Community
• Formed around a common purpose
• Work towards the same goals
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6. What is an open organization?
• “An organization that engages
participative communities both inside
and out”
• Responds to opportunities (and threats)
more quickly
• Access to resources and talent outside
the organization
• Inspires, motivates, and empowers
people at all levels to act with
accountability
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7. Open Organization: Key Characteristics
• Release early, release often
• It takes time to decide how
something will be released perfectly
from the first try
• Often it is better to implement a
new idea quickly and use the
feedback to improve or abandon
that idea
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8. Open Organization: Key Characteristics
• Change management during the
decision process
• By truly involving the people
affected by a certain decision in the
decision making itself, the change
has already been accepted before
the execution
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9. • Dare to fail
• Errors should be seen as learning
moments
• Be open to feedback you receive by
acknowledging and admitting those
mistakes
• Giving room to mistakes gives the
freedom to innovate and experiment
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Open Organization: Key Characteristics

10. • Letting the sparks fly
• Discussions are good for the entire
organization
• By setting aside your feelings of honor, and
looking objectively to the critical comments
your idea receives, you are able to make
better decisions that will be followed by
your peers
• Sparks  Terminally nice
• Not discussing bad ideas (because of
the hierarchical place, for example)
leads your organization off a cliff
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Open Organization: Key Characteristics

11. • Front line innovation
• The best ideas come from people on
the front line
• Bottom-up
• Think of ways to let those ideas be
heard
• Leader as catalyst, by selling half-
baked ideas and stirring up the debate
“If you really want innovation to happen, you
almost have to think about it as an ecosystem.
A lot of companies think that the way to be
more innovative is to put a group of creative
people together. But your most creative ideas
are going to come from people on the front lines
who see a different way of doing the jobs they
do every day. You have to create vehicles for
those ideas to be heard”
Jim Whitehurst
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Open Organization: Key Characteristics

13. “Great companies don’t hire
skilled people and motivate them,
they hire already motivated
people and inspire them”