Anarchists in the Boardroom: How Social Media and Social Movements Can Help Your Organisation to be More Like People

255 Pages·2014·1.36 MB·English

by  Liam Barrington-Bush

What people are saying about Anarchists
in the Boardroom...
“Anarchists in the Boardroom is a disturbing book in so many
ways. All of them good. It challenges us to rethink the dinosaur
assumptions on which most of our organisations are built. It
opens our minds to fresh and creative possibilities for treating
ourselves and colleagues with trust and compassion. Above all, it
places the qualities of being human at the heart of our
endeavours, putting a better world within the reach of us all. A
vade mecum for life!”

- Roger Clark, former Secretary General of Amnesty
International Canada

“We all crave meaning, agency and fulfilment at work. Too often
we experience the very opposite; the idealism that drove us
evaporates into disillusionment and boredom. If this is you, read
this book! It’s an inspiring and above all highly practical guide to
how to change your workplace for the better. Thank you, Liam,
for showing us the way.”

- Carne Ross, former senior UK diplomat to the UN, Author of
The Leaderless Revolution and Occupy Wall Street activist

“I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked to speak
on panels organized by NGO managers asking ‘What can we
learn from the success of Occupy/ UKUNCUT/ Climate
Camp/the latest grassroots movement hitting the headlines.’ I tend
to decline, politely responding that I don’t think hierarchical
organisations are able to do so. Since reading this book though, I
will adopt a new approach and recommend Anarchists in the
Boardroom instead. This book deserves to be passed around like
contraband by charity workers committed to making their
organisations part of - rather than simply observers of -
transformational social change.”

- Tim Gee, Author of You Can’t Evict an Idea and Counterpower

“Anarchists in the Boardroom is a powerful contribution to the
growing chorus of voices calling for a new way of leading and
managing our organizations. And Barrington-Bush goes beyond
the boundaries of traditional management scholarship, drawing
some critically important lessons from overlooked sources like
the Occupy Movement and hip-hop music, and applying them in
refreshingly practical ways to the real challenges we face in
creating organizational cultures that work in the 21st century.”

- Maddie Grant and Jamie Notter, Co-Authors of Humanize: How
people-centric organizations succeed in a social world
Table of Contents
Dedicated to Paul
This is where the copyright info would normally go in a book.

Your more like people map

Introduction: A management book for people who don’t read
management books

Chapter 1 - The inhumanity of it all!

Chapter 2 - The ‘more like people’ principles: humanity,
autonomy, complexity

Chapter 3 - The myth of hierarchical necessity and what we
can do for ourselves

Chapter 4 - ‘Not for us’: The privileged bias of ‘more like
machines’ organisations

Chapter 5 - Innovation, failure, and hip hop genius
Chapter 6 - The kind of ownership that can’t be bought or
sold

Chapter 7 - It’s up to us!: From individual change to culture
change

Chapter 8 - Complexity doesn’t strategise: Learning to
embrace unforeseen circumstances

Chapter 9 - Accountability: From ‘compliance’ to ‘trust’

Chapter 10 - The time for change is now... and if you don’t do
it, we will!

Your more like people legend

Your more like people-finder
Bibliography
Expressions of Thanks
About the author
The story is just beginning...
Dedicated to Paul – without whom I would not likely have had the
confidence to run off to Mexico and write this book.

This is where the copyright info would normally go in a book.
But since I don’t believe in copyright, let’s try something different...
In regards to money and ‘ownership’ of this book or e-book:
1. If you paid for it – thank you! You’ve made my life a bit easier!
2. If you didn’t pay for it, I hope you enjoy it... and if you’re able to, I’d be incredibly grateful if you
could make a small contribution to my work on www. morelikepeople.com if you like it!
3. If you want to share it with someone, please do so! You have my full endorsement! (Though would
be great if you pointed the recipient to #2 when doing so).
4. If you’re sharing it in parts, or including snippets in something else you’re doing, I’d appreciate
any accreditation you feel is appropriate.
5. If you are making money off what you are sharing it for, please share a token of appreciation my
way on morelikepeople.com. What you give is up to you.
6. If you’re a publisher who’s seen what a terrific underground hit this book has become and is trying
to publish it in its entirety without asking, I enact Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). I’m happy to talk, but please
be civil drop me a line on [email protected]
Thanks! Liam
The first edition of this book/ e-book was published in the UK in September 2013 and was written by Liam
Barrington-Bush.
For more about the book, check out morelikepeople.com or email me: [email protected]
Cover art by Steve Lafler – www.stevelafler.com
Edited by Dave Oswald Mitchell – www.daveomitchell.com
Lay-out and internal design by Serena Lee – www.serenalee.com
morelikepeople.com development by Majed Rostamian – www.artadesign.ca
E-book ISBN number: 978-0-9926803-1-2
How social media and social movements can help your organisation to be more
like people.
morelikepeople.org
Your more like people map
A non-comprehensive list of things you can do to help your
organisation to be more like people. Ranges from personal habits to
structural change and much in between. You can also skip to your
more like people legend at the back of the book for brief descriptions
of each idea.
1. Simple Starters
a. Tell someone that you appreciate something they did
b. Stop using jargon (and tell others you’re doing so)
c. Get to know someone new in your organisation
d. Dress as you'd like to dress at work
e. Send fewer internal emails & talk to people in person
f. Have chats, not meetings (Ch.5)
g. Try more ideas than you expect will succeed (Ch.5)
h. Don’t talk through the command chain
i. Bake cookies or make a meal for those you work with