Collective leadership, self-management, employee led organization, non-hierarchical or horizontal ways of working – no matter what we call it, these ways of working together are what allow organizations to tap into their full potential and respond to their most current and relevant challenges. When organizations begin to shift their culture towards more explicit forms of shared power, mutual responsibility and care, the journey forward is neither clear nor easy, and we often get stuck. But what if organizations themselves are the ideal training grounds for developing the most critical personal and collective leadership skills required for our shared future? Based on a unique anthropological lens, Samantha has uncovered a practical approach to going horizontal that can help anyone, no matter the domain of your activity, the size of your organization or your role within it.

1. Going Horizontal
The path to better organizations
and a better society
Samantha Slade, Social designer
PERCOLAB COOP
Author: Going Horizontal

2. One perspective

3. Another perspective

4. 1 min silence to remember
30 sec. to draw your line
1 min to share/active listening (repeat)
What’s your career line?

5. 1. What’s this “Going Horizontal”?
2. The path of practice
3. Seven domains of practice
4. Why going horizontal matters
Rethinking our narrative of work

6. My journey - 36 years of work
McJobs +
anthropology
8 years
Public Sector
career
16 years
Entrepreneur +
experimentation lab
12 years

7. “The Workplace Is Killing
People and Nobody
Cares”
Stanford Graduate School of Business
March 2018

8. The future is calling for more horizontal ways.

9. People - naturally
horizontallyHuman nature is naturally non-hierarchical

10. Disengaged worker Engaged worker
Execute tasks, avoids work Shows up and works with spirit and
care
Little desire to learn Curious and proactive to learn and
grow
Complains, blames, victimizes Contributes ideas, offers support
Indifference towards the organization Imagines possibilities, cocreates,
proposes

11. horizontal
self-organizing
employee-led
self-management
participatory
leadership
It doesn’t matter what we call it.
It’s the future of organizations.
human-centered
non-hierarchical
collaborative
co-managed

12. We have clear data
that it is possible to
go horizontal at any
scale and in any
sector.

13. Going Horizontal is
about the how.
It’s a practical approach
to the mindset shift
via practice.

14. Practice is learning (not expertise)

15. Can you really learn to
swim without getting
in the water?

16. It’s not possible to
change structure
without changing
culture.

17. 3 types of practices
Prototype
Collectively agreed
Personal
Discreet
Informal
With colleagues

18. Let’s practice
transparency
together, now.

19. We have many practice fields
My co-property
Ex. renovation decisions
My colleagues
Ex. salaries
Members of my
coworking
Ex. collective lunches
My clients
Ex. project meeting
My family
Ex. Christmas
My friends
Ex. canoe trip

20. 7 key domains of practice

21. 1. AUTONOMY
Claim Your Personal Leadership

22. 2. PURPOSE
The Invisible Leader

23. 3. MEETINGS
Sharing the Responsibilities and
Accountability

24. 3. Meetings
Sharing the Responsibilities and Accountabilities

25. 4. TRANSPARENCY
Open is Effective and Efficient

26. 5. DECISION MAKING
Sharing the Power

27. 5. Decision Making
Sharing the power
Autocratic Democratic Advice
Consent Consensus

28. 6. LEARNING AND
DEVELOPMENT
Self Directed and Collectively Held

29. 6. Learning and Development
Self Directed and Collectively Held
Trigger log practice
1. Identify a moment you were triggered:
Context, what specifically triggered you, how that showed up in your
body/actions. How you recentered.
2. Share with someone who silently listens (witnessing) (2 min)
3. Your partner asks you “What are you learning about yourself from
this trigger?”and silently listens again. (1 min)
4. Switch roles (2 min + 1 min)

30. 7. RELATIONSHIPS AND
CONFLICTS
Tending to Them Together

31. With horizontal practices
1. Mechanistic > living system
2. Heroic leadership
> personal leadership for all
3. Self-interest and competition
> cooperation and collective
care

32. Going Horizontal
helps us walk on this
planet more
consciously,
courageously and
collaboratively.

33. What if by growing
more horizontal
organizations we
were contributing to a
better society?

34. There’s no need to
wait for permission
from hierarchy
to start practicing
non-hierarchical
ways.

35. Samantha Slade
sam@percolab.com
www.percolab.com
www.goinghorizontal.co