Gary Hamel is on the faculty of the London Business School and is a cofounder of the Management Lab, an organization that builds technology and tools to support breakthrough management innovation. Professor Hamel has been hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the world’s most influential business thinker, and his landmark books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. They include The Future of Management, What Matters Now, and Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them. 

Gary makes a passionate, data-driven argument for excising bureaucracy and replacing it with something better. Drawing on more than a decade of research and packed with practical examples, Gary lays out a detailed blueprint for creating organizations that are as inspired and ingenious as the human beings inside them.

Key Takeaways

[3:40] Employees feel powerless because they’re not the CEO or in a leadership position. Truth is, employees hold a lot of power.

[6:15] You don’t need to take down the whole system to fix it. Experiment and see what works.

[7:50] Most communication in organizations is horizontal, not vertical.

[9:10] Gary shares an example of how employees can get the funding they need within their department without going through the lengthy budget planning and permission process.

[12:20] In a recent poll, more than 56% of people thought that capitalism was doing more harm than good.

[13:45] No matter your political side, people are frustrated by the broken system.

[20:45] Being in a physical location does not impact whether an employee feels more connected to the company mission.

[22:40] We live in an increasingly complex world, where changes happen rapidly and often. At the same time, bureaucracy is growing. Gary shares his thoughts on why that might be.

[30:30] Breakthroughs often come from people who are very young or from outside the system. If you want to succeed, you need an outsider mindset.

[33:35] We see human beings as instruments. We need to shift our focus and see them as agents instead.

[35:45] Leaders think their people are resistant to change. This is a false narrative.

[37:35] There is a reason why employees are so cynical.

[42:00] Gary shares his proudest achievements and what he looks forward to in the future.

[45:25] If you’re a leader, ask yourself how do you increase the power of those around you?

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Quotable Quotes

Resources Mentioned

• Website
• Gary on LinkedIn & @Profhamel on Twitter

• Gary’s books:
  • Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them,
  • What Matters Now: How to Win in a World of Relentless Change, Ferocious Competition, and Unstoppable Innovation,
  • The Future of Management
• Dreams and Details, by Jim Hagemann Snabe and Mikael Trolle

Gary Hamel

These are the books mentioned in our interview with Gary

Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them

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