Rewriting Power

Why do we continue to lead twenty-first-century organizations with assumptions that are more than a hundred years old? Rewriting Power tells the story of Var Group, a major Italian company active in the digital transformation of enterprises, which chose to move beyond hierarchy and build a networked system based on distributed authority, autonomous micro-enterprises, explicit roles, shared rituals, and decisions made where the information lives. Francesco Frugiuele and Francesca Moriani bring together two complementary perspectives: one rooted in the study and design of advanced organization-al systems, from Haier to Buurtzorg, from sociocracy to digital platforms; the other in the daily leadership of a company changing its own rules of the game. Through six dimensions—transparency, clarity, decisions, rituals, strategy, and explicit economic constraints—and eighteen operating practices, the book shows how to redesign the deep operating system of an organization: how information flows, decisions are made, responsibilities are distributed, and value is created and shared. The result is what the authors call a “Ripple Organization”: a more legible, adaptive, and distributed organization, in which every tension can generate a wave of change without everything having to pass through the top. A book for anyone leading companies, teams, and transformations who feels that the old model is no longer enough—and wants a more mature, responsible, and concrete way to rethink power in organizations.