Further Resources
The following are resources I recommend you explore further to gain a deeper understanding of the topics discussed in this chapter:
Kniberg, Henrik and Ivarsson, Anders. “Scaling Agile at Spotify with Tribes, Squads, Chapters and Guilds.” 2012. https://blog.crisp.se/2012/11/14/henrikkniberg/scaling-agile-at-spotify
An easy and enjoyable read—and quite important. Kniberg and Ivarsson captured a snapshot of how Spotify approached an agile organizational structure in 2012, and many took it as gospel. There are lots of great lessons to be learned here; however, the underlying principles for why they did what they did, and how they approached employee autonomy and company alignment, for instance, are excellent. This resource is well worth your time!
Eckstein, Jutta and Buck, John. Bossanova: Company-Wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy. 2018. https://leanpub.com/bossanova
Eckstein and Buck are giants in their respective fields of agile thinking and Sociocracy. When they had a chance to come together and discuss the challenges facing organizations today, they found that many of the same themes resonated with them. As a result, they decided to join forces and share their collective knowledge in their book Bossanova. It’s an informative read bound to give you insights you can use in your own transformation efforts.
Pentland, Alex “Sandy.” “The New Science of Building Great Teams.” April 2012. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-new-science-of-building-great-teams
This is the Harvard Business Review article summarizing the findings I refer to in the text above. Pentland was able to use sensors and empirical data to look at communication patterns and how people collaborate in teams. It’s a fascinating study that is fairly unique, at least in terms of knowledge work.
https://www.gensler.com/research-insight/workplace-surveys
I don’t intend to promote companies or brands in this book, but Gensler is a workplace architectural firm I have a lot of respect for that offers its own findings to the public. Their annual workplace surveys are as informative as they are beautifully designed; they’re worth your time if you want to know more about trends in workspace design.