I attended an event at the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) last week, where Frederic Laloux spoke on the issue of "Soulful Organisations".  The essence of his talk was that we need to rebalance our thinking on management towards truly soulful, purposeful and powerful workplaces.

Laloux's research sits alongside countless other writers, thinkers and academics and, in essence, there is nothing new here.  Survey after survey shows that the vast majority of employees are disengaged at work, while business leaders complain that their organisations are too slow, siloed and bureaucratic for today's world. I recommend that you view the videocast of the lecture below for a full insight into Laloux's thinking. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&x-yt-ts=1421914688&v=QA9J-aKkOAI#t=2585

Laloux suggested that the transition to more humanistic (soulful) organisations was an "all or nothing" deal. In other words, we could not gradually install a five year HR change programme to move towards such an aspiration. I find this part of the argument problematic, as most of our organisations are run by their "heads" and not their "souls". What then of all the jobs concerned with measurement and compliance at work? What do we do about objectives, KPI's, CSF's, appraisal, performance related pay and so on. This prompted me to think that perhaps HR had a role as CEO – aka Chief Emotional Officer, a point which I brought up in question time, to some nervous laughter and comment by Matthew Taylor, The RSA's Chief Executive.

I suspect Laloux's message will find currency in progressive organisations who already think in a "soulful way". Many others will need nothing short of a violent revolution if his principles are to take root. Even The Body Shop, Semco and Virgin had accountants within their empires! I must say that, although I'm a believer in more emotionally intelligent organisations, I see Laloux's thesis purely as a great piece of utopian academia for most companies, since they are run by numbers and not emotions. Inspiring, but not grounded enough for companies that focus on their bottom lines rather than their souls.

Is the HR function perfectly positioned to lead change towards more balanced organisation development for progressive companies? If it's not an "all or nothing' decision, does that make the proposition more achievable?