“From an Evolutionary-Teal perspective, the right question is not: how can everyone have equal power? It is rather: how can everyone be powerful?”

What often puzzles us at first about self-managing organizations is that they are not structured along the control-minded hierarchical templates of Newtonian science. They are complex, participatory, interconnected, interdependent, and continually evolving systems, like ecosystems in nature. Form follows need. Roles are picked up, discarded, and exchanged fluidly. Power is distributed. Decisions are made at the point of origin. Innovations can spring up from all quarters. Meetings are held when they are needed. Temporary task forces are created spontaneously and quickly disbanded again. Here is how Chris Rufer, the founder and president of Morning Star, talks about the structure of self-managing organizations: Clouds form and then go away because atmospheric conditions, temperatures, and humidity cause molecules of water to either condense or vaporize. Organizations should be the same; structures need to appear and disappear based on the forces that are acting in the organization. When people are free to act, they’re able to sense those forces and act in ways that fit best with reality.”

Hierarchies don’t just creep back in, as in Holacracy. Instead, they’re explicitly enforced.

Graham’s minimalist approach to meetings stands in stark contrast to the one taken by Brian Robertson, the author of the notorious management method known as Holacracy, which convenes intense, expressive meetings that encourage every manner of human interaction except maybe professional ones. Robertson, who calls himself a ‘‘recovering C.E.O.,’’ created ‘‘the Holacracy Constitution’’ in 2009, just as skepticism about corporate structures, like the ones at the failed big banks, had turned to fever.

I asked Graham, by email, if he still believed in the split between Managers and Makers that he outlined seven years ago. ‘‘Of course I stand behind it,’’ he wrote back, in brisk, English-accented prose. ‘‘I wrote that essay.’’ Graham then described his ideal meeting, conjuring a congenial fantasy. ‘‘There are no more than four or five participants, and they know and trust one another. They go rapidly through a list of open questions while doing something else, like eating lunch. There are no presentations. No one is trying to impress anyone. They are all eager to leave and get back to work.’’

Researchers from the University of Chi­cago and M.I.T. created phony résumés with the same qualifications, giving half of them black-sounding names (Lakisha Washington and Jamal Jones) and the other half white-sounding names (Emily Walsh and Greg Baker). Those with ‘‘white’’ names received 50 percent more callbacks for interviews than those with ‘‘black’’ names. A 2015 study followed up on this, and found that candidates with black-sounding names from elite universities did only as well as those with white-sounding names from less-selective schools. Other recent studies have found that applicants who are Muslims, ex-offenders, mothers, disabled or gay are also less likely to be called back, even if the employers swear they want a diverse work force and believe they’re doing everything in their power to create one.

A study of top banking, law and consulting firms found that similarities in things like leisure activities and personality were the most important factor in their evaluation of candidates. Hiring now resembles choosing a romantic partner more than an employee, says Lauren Rivera, an associate professor of management and sociology at Northwestern and the author of the study.

“This does not change the fact that on a personal level, the process can be painful. The self-managing context nevertheless helps people realize that no one is to blame; they are perhaps simply not meant for this particular work. How we react to an event such as a dismissal depends on our perspective on life. Remember: in a Conformist-Amber worldview, lifelong employment is the norm. A “dismissal is therefore a deeply distressing event, a forced expulsion from an identity-giving community. In Achievement-Orange, it is often experienced as a traumatic blow to the sense of self-worth, and in Pluralistic-Green as a betrayal by the group. In Teal, we can hold the event more consciously: a door closes, perhaps painfully at first, in order for another door to open down the line that might bring us closer to our path in life. We can see it as an invitation to reflect on the real nature of our strengths and talents and discover what other work might better suit us. We learn, grow, and move on.”

“Traditional performance evaluations can be dispiriting affairs. Often we don’t recognize ourselves in the “feedback because our boss only has a narrow view of our work (or sometimes because he tells us everything is all right, just to get the uncomfortable moment over with). With more input from more peers, we get a more meaningful reflection of our contribution. There is another reason why so many appraisal conversations feel lifeless: they tend to be very narrow discussions, sticking to some preformatted evaluation grid, neglecting to inquire into broader questions of the person’s selfhood—their hopes, dreams, fears, yearnings, and sense of purpose in life.”

“Our egos may be wary of feedback, but we are relational beings that thrive on honest feedback. I’ve seen organizations where no feedback is ever exchanged “go mad” because of it. People judge others behind their backs, only to wonder nervously what others might be saying when they have their backs turned. In places like these, every word, every silence, every raised eyebrow, is scrutinized for unspoken judgments. Teal Organizations are high on trust and low on fears.”

“every year in January, teams present a self-evaluation to a group of colleagues, which comprises Chris Rufer (the founder and president) and anyone else who cares to join. They are expected to talk candidly about what went well and what didn’t, how effectively they used company resources, and what they plan to do in the next year. It’s not a superficial effort; each presentation lasts for a few hours, and teams can expect challenging, sometimes grilling questions from their colleagues.”

“Because roles in self-managing organizations are defined granularly, it can be quite easy to trade roles within a team. A person that is very busy can ask colleagues to pick up one of her roles, temporarily or permanently.”

“No part of the organization belongs to anybody. Many of the organizations researched for this book stress the opposite; they emphasize what Morning Star calls “total responsibility”: all colleagues have the obligation to do something about an issue they sense, even when it falls outside of the scope of their roles. It’s considered unacceptable to say, “Somebody should do something about this problem,” and leave it at that; if you see a problem or an opportunity, you have an obligation to do something about it, and most often that “something” is to go and talk about it with the colleague whose role relates to the topic.”

In Teal Organizations, people don’t compete for scarce promotions. You can broaden the scope of your work and increase your pay if your colleagues are ready to entrust you with new roles. They will grant you important roles if you’ve developed your skills and have shown yourself to be trustworthy and helpful.

“Present proposal: The proposer states his proposal and the issue this proposal is attempting to resolve. Clarifying questions: Anybody can ask clarifying “questions to seek information or understanding. This point is not yet the moment for reactions, and the facilitator will interrupt any question that is cloaking a reaction to the proposal. Reaction round: Each person is given space to react to the proposal. Discussions and responses are not allowed at this stage. Amend and clarify: The proposer can clarify the intent of his proposal further or amend it based on the prior discussion. Objection round: The facilitator asks, “Do you see any reasons why adopting this proposal would cause harm or move “us backwards?” Objections are stated and captured without discussion; the proposal is adopted if none surface. Integration: If an objection is raised, the facilitator leads an open discussion to craft an amended proposal that would avoid the objection while still addressing the proposer’s concern. If several objections are raised, they get addressed in this way one at a time, until all are removed.”

“Actually, one could argue that every organization’s real structure looks like this: an intricate web of fluid relationships and commitments that people engage in to get their work done. Unfortunately, most organizations force a second structure, the one with boxes piled up in pyramid shape, on “top of the first. No wonder it sits there so uneasily—it distorts more than it helps the real work going on in the web of relationships underneath. Perhaps you noticed how many more lines there are in Morning Star’s web than in a formal organization chart. The resulting structure weaves into a fabric that is highly resilient, like a spider web. Notice too how within such a system that there are no layers and thus no promotions. What happens is that people, as they grow in experience, take on roles with larger responsibilities and offload simpler ones to new recruits or more junior colleagues. People don’t need approval from a boss to change “roles, but consent from their peers. The implication is profound, as one Morning Star colleague expresses: The temptation to not be ourselves and look good in the eyes of a boss is much diminished, as it is hard to constantly look good to a dozen colleagues. We just give up even trying to play that game.50 In Teal Organizations, people don’t compete for scarce promotions. You can broaden the scope of your work and increase your pay if your colleagues are ready to entrust you with new roles.”