I just finished reading a book that I’d like to recommend to anyone who likes the idea of “agile”, applied beyond the scope of software development.

A Radical Enterprise: Pioneering the Future of High-Performing Organizations by Matt Parker several key charactaristics, or imperatives, of organizations that practice “radical collaboration”:

• Team Autonomy
• Managerial Devolution
• Deficiency Gratification
• Candid Vulnerability

Taken together, these four imperatives form the foundation of several highly-successful companies profiled in the book, each of which differs from traditional, top-down/command-and-control style management in very surprising and profound ways.

• Employees setting their own salaires
• Employees changing teams whenever they feel the need
• Employees setting their own priorities

Many of these tactics feel like they could have been taken straight out of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, but then they go farther… to not just how software is built by self-organizing teams, but how the entire company is self-organizing, or is made up of peers, with no designated leader.

I recommend this book to anyone in leadership, or anyone who longs for a better way of conducting business. Unless you’re the owner or CEO, you may not be able to implement everything in this book, but without a doubt you can implement something from this book to make your business more effective, and your reports/employees happier and more engaged.