For every company like Zappos that has achieved the Utopia of an egalitarian business model, there are thousands that remain stuck on the corporate ladder. Self-management consultant Samantha Slade shares that the real secret to flattening a hierarchical organization is seemingly obvious- don't do it all at once.
Samantha Slade is the cofounder of Percolab--an international consultancy--and Ecolab, a co-working coop in Montreal. Both organizations are experimental fields for new operational ways, from collaborative general assemblies to self-managing compensation models. Slade has been exploring new collaborative models for twenty-five years, and has worked with departments within the European Union as well as with business teams, city employees, and citizens to develop new ways to work and learn.
“Individual practices can shift entire systems. In Going
Horizontal, Samantha Slade provides all leaders with individualized
access points to leverage their unique experience to shift not only
their organization but the entire leadership paradigm.”
—Susan Basterfield, thought leader on the future of work, author,
and member of Enspiral
“Samantha Slade brings the keen eye of an anthropologist to the
study of organizations and succeeds admirably in highlighting
truths about our collective humanity and how to do things better.
Welcome to the self-managed workplace of the future.”
—Doug Kirkpatrick, US Partner, NuFocus Strategic Group, and author
of Beyond Empowerment
“Samantha Slade offers a much-needed alternative to our current
systems of organizing. Her book is as refreshing as it is personal
and will be indispensable for those looking to bring more humanity
into their organizations.”
—Joel Bothello, Assistant Professor, Department of Management, John
Molson School of Business, Concordia University
“Thank you Samantha Slade, for not only showing us why rigid
hierarchies are no longer fit for humanity’s evolutionary purpose,
but also, how to create ecosystemic, horizontal organizations
instead. For those who feel trapped inside organizations that treat
people like morons or machine parts, help is at hand.”
—Stephen Huddart, President & CEO McConnell Foundation, Canada
“Going well beyond horizontal theory and concepts, this work is
social practice in action; a wonderful companion for anyone who
senses that reconnecting with our true human nature in our work is
the only way forward.”
—Mary O’Keeffe, Director, Loomio (New Zealand)
“Samantha Slade offers a much-needed alternative to our current
systems of organizing. Her book is as refreshing as it is personal
and will be indispensable for those looking to bring more humanity
into their organizations.”
—Joel Bothello, Assistant Professor, Department of Management, John
Molson School of Business, Concordia University (Canada)
“This book is for anyone who’s ever wondered what the future of
truly fulfilling work could look like.”
—Melissa Aronczyk, Associate Professor of Journalism and Media
Studies, Rutgers University (USA)
“Samantha Slade—and this book—is what the world of work needs more
of. Sparky thinking, applied methodologies, and humanist
principles.”
—Perry Timms, HR Most Influential Thinker 2017;
founder PTHR; and author of Transformational HR (UK)
“Samantha is on the leading edge of self-management for
organizations. She is breaking ground to discover and share the new
ways we can work together that we are all starving for.”
—Amanda Hachey, Director, NouLAB (Canada)
“In the transformation of our society to become more human,
Samantha is a reference.”
—Étienne Collignon, President, TeamFactory, and learning systems
teacher (France)
“If there’s anyone who knows how to structure workplaces in new,
more effective, more energizing ways, it’s Samantha Slade. Her
book, Going Horizontal, is a masterwork in how to turn a sluggish
hierarchical organization into one that’s egalitarian and
alive.”
—Mark Levy, founder of Levy Innovation LLC and author of Accidental
Genius (USA)
“Samantha Slade has, with her own life, taken a bold journey into
the landscape of how we can evolve our organizations, lead together
and focus on the purposes we choose to serve. I invite you to
listen to her, understand her message, be inspired and enjoy your
own practice for a more humane and kinder world.”
—Toke Paludan Moeller, Sustainable entrepreneurship pioneer, CEO
Interchange, Art of Hosting steward (Denmark)
“Samantha outlines in clear, concrete, and highly accessible
language tested practices, ranging from the personal to the
systemic, that support participatory ways of working to flatten and
democratize organizations. I can easily envision this book quickly
becoming a standard reference for those involved in organizational
development and change design at every level.”
—Rosemary C. Reilly, Graduate Program Director, MA in Human Systems
Intervention, and Associate Professor, Concordia University
(Canada)
“A brilliant distillation of lived experience, field research, and
more academic research—transformed into simple practices to live
by. It turns all the philosophical discussions about collaboration
and self-organization into incredibly practical and doable
practices.”
—Caroline Rennie, cofounder of Gen-H (Switzerland)
“This is a brilliant field guide from a practitioner and
organization designer who has dared to explore, experiment with,
and engage with the new ways of working and being. This book must
be in the list of essential reading for the #futureofwork.”
—Sahana Chattopadhyay, Asia-Pacific thought leader on the future of
work (India)
“Going Horizontal is a gift to anyone eager to see beyond the
trappings of traditional hierarchy and explore new ways of working
and being.”
—Brent Lowe, Coach for founder CEOs, and author (Canada)
“Samantha Slade shares her knowledge and experience with accuracy,
wisdom, and amazing gentleness. This book and the proposed
practices are a truly precious help and compass toward more
horizontality in my organization.”
—Damien Versele, CEO, De Sleutel (Belgium)
“Sam Slade’s Going Horizontal finally brings the notion of
cocreation out of the theoretical realm and makes it practical and
achievable.”
—Roxane Maranger, Professor of Biology, University of Montréal, and
President-Elect, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and
Oceanography (Canada)
“Going Horizontal is a key piece in the field of organizational
consciousness and working transformatively in the 21st century.
—Melinda Várfi, Cofounder of Organik (Hungary) and Resonanz
(Austria)
“Going Horizontal speaks to the three innate and universal
psychological needs for humans to function optimally:
self-direction, competence, and relatedness. If you want to
increase the probability of having a workplace where fun, purpose,
and meaning create a greater good, read this book.”
—Jacques Forest, organizational psychologist; Professor, School of
Management, Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada)
“The time has come for every enterprise to reimagine and redesign
how it works, and Going Horizontal will be a key
resource.”
—MJ Kaplan, Partner, The Ready, and Board Member, Loomio (USA)
“I especially appreciate the ‘how to’ approach as this is where you
will struggle most when implanting changes that are based on
sharing and participation.”
—Bernd Reichert, Executive Director, Executive Agency for Small and
Medium-Sized Enterprises (Belgium)
“Samantha Slade’s mastery of group dynamics is inspiring and is at
the level of artistry. What a pleasure to have benefited from her
teachings.”
—Anne Charpentier, Director, Montreal Insectarium, Space for
Life (Canada)
“Samantha embodies a new way of seeing work and living it, and that
is how she has helped transform our organization, step by
step.”
—Huguette Robert, Director, and Steeven Pedneault, Social
Designer, Présâges (Canada)
“More than ever, the public sector needs talent like Samantha to
learn a basic human skill for our democracy: cooperation for social
innovation.”
—Cécile Joly, Public Innovation and Learning Lab, Public
Administration (France)
“Read this book to learn how to see the world in a new perspective
and develop a new set of muscles for building the commons!”
—David Bollier, author of Think like a Commoner (USA)
“Discover how to step into a more mature and responsible management
paradigm where human beings can get up to a different level of
mastery and purpose alignment. This book has challenged my own
beliefs and ideas about my responsibility to be the change.”
—Ana Manzanedo, Governance Connector, Ouishare (Spain)
“Samantha embodies the principles she upholds: a profound respect
of the contribution of each individual and mastery of the science
of efficient collaborative processes.”
—Manon Poirier, Executive Director, Quebec Chartered Professionals
in Human Resources (Canada)
“Samantha Slade deeply understands the power and vitality of
nonhierarchical cultures. I highly recommend Going
Horizontal as a tool when developing your horizontal
culture.”
—Sarah Houseman, Governance Researcher, La Trobe University
(Australia)
“With Samantha Slade’s book, we now have an insightful resource to
help people understand how to operate effectively in this new
paradigm. This is the ultimate companion for going horizontal.”
—Edwin Jansen, Head of Marketing, Fitzii (Canada)
“This book is a must-read, discussing seven domains that are
critical in a horizontal context.”
—Ivo Bols, CEO, Irisoft Solutions (Belgium)
“Samantha’s creativity and way of being enliven the collective
intelligence methods that she embodies.”
—Denis Cristol, National Center of Territorial Public Sector
(France)
“Samantha succeeds in opening up collaboration perspectives that
are little known. She reminds us that we are never too small to
act.”
—Renée Ouimet, Director, Quebec Mental Health Movement (Canada)
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