Going Teal for Real!
Seed Nordic joins Kugghuset
During the last 6 months I’ve been talking and writing passionately about Teal, a paradigm shift in how we think about organisations. I’ve spent sleepless nights thinking about it’s implications and how it could work in reality. I’ve talked to a lot of smart people about it. I helped found the Stockholm based network ‘Going Teal’. And I’ve written a handful of blog posts on the topic to help me sort out my own thoughts and of course spread the word.
Some would say (and I’d probably have to agree) that I’ve sounded like a sect leader, talking about ‘The Book’. However the book I’ve been evangelising is not a religious text, but instead the highly inspiring Reinventing Organizations by author Frederic Laloux.
Like I said, I’ve been talking about Teal for 6 months. But so far thats all it’s been: Talk, talk, talk…
But today talk becomes reality! As of today Seed Nordic will join forces with Kugghuset, a seven person team already running Teal.
The Teal dream
Kugghuset has been experimenting with Teal practices since the start. They just didn’t have a name for it. They have practiced self management, experimented with flexible working hours, and generally focused on having fun. Here’s a link to their co-worker handbook. Seriously - go check it out… You’ll realise how outdated your own policies are.
During a lunch with the founder earlier this year we talked about Teal. He read the book, and quickly bought copies for the entire team. They read it, and found that it described what they were already doing. It gave them a vocabulary, and a new set of tools to experiment with. The founder joined the ‘Going Teal’ network and the two of us started dreaming about what we can do together.
Today that dream becomes reality. We talk of it as a merger, but in fact I’ll join Kugghuset as a full time employee and an equal partner, and will be closing down Seed Nordic. This morning we had our first team meeting, and I am proud to be writing this post as a Kugghuset employee!
So what’s next?
Kugghuset specialises in Business Intelligence (BI), which basically means that they help companies structure and understand their data, and present it in cool looking graphs and dashboards which help people make better decisions. There’s of course a lot more magic happening under the hoods, which is why they call themselves Data Wizards. What the Accenture’s of the world do in years, I’ve seen these guys do in weeks (actually hours). I’ve even happened to overhear a client call the founder “Super Konrad”, which should give you an idea of just how good they are. But skills aside, they’re a bunch of wonderful, somewhat “nerdy” individuals, who together has made Kugghuset what it is today. I couldn’t be more excited to join the team.
Kugghuset will continue delivering BI and I’ll help with sales and project management. But on top of that I’ll also be adding a new business area where we’ll continue Seed Nordic’s mission of creating the future through rapid product development. We’ll work on our own products, but also help clients with their product development under the tagline “Startup-as-a-Service”.
The Kugghuset team members call themselves Data Wizards, and since everyone needs a fancy title, I’ve chosen to knight myself Product Wizard and Business Philosopher. And that’s what I’ll be doing: Continuing to build awesome products, while thinking and talking about Teal.
Deciding to join Kugghuset
After returning from India I decided to try this Teal thing for real. And during the last few weeks I’ve been carefully weighing my options. Should I continue developing Seed Nordic? Merge with Kugghuset? Or do something entirely different (I had an awesome offer to help establish a new European Accelerator, which I had to turn down)?
My reasoning went something like this:
- I know I want to work with product development (the what)
- I know I want to work in a Teal organisation (the how)
Seed Nordic has the right ‘what’, but is currently a team of one, so it failed the ‘how’ test.
Kugghuset was already running Teal, so it had the right ‘how’, but it’s current focus is BI, so it failed the ‘what’ test.
The third option, the accelerator, neither had the how or what, so the choice came down to Seed Nordic or Kugghuset. That’s when it hit me. Why not combine the best of both worlds? What if I could continue to develop the ‘what’ of Seed Nordic, within the team and structures of Kugghuset? A plan was coming together.
I spent most of last week meeting each member of the Kugghuset team individually over coffee. Fascinating meetings. We didn’t so much interview each other, but instead talked about who we are as individuals, how we relate to Teal, and what our dreams are for the future. I was taken by everybody’s honesty and openness. For some reason everyone decided to pour their heart out to a total stranger. (I can’t help wonder if this is due to Teal practices, or just because they’re authentic, trusting, self aware people. Either way its something I want to be part of.)
We talked about where they wanted to take Kugghuset, and I shared my idea of adding a Future Lab. It was easy. We got along great. The conversations flowed. We smiled. We laughed. We drank way to much coffee. And as it turned out the team loved the Future Lab idea. As the week came to a close it was obvious that this was the right choice, and come Monday morning (today) I’m all set up and ready to go!
A friend asked me over the weekend if it felt like a failure letting go of Seed Nordic. Good question. We’ve worked hard. We’ve experimented with various business models. We almost went bankrupt. And we survived. This move doesn’t feel like the end. It feels like the natural next step. I’m taking everything that was great about Seed Nordic, and combining it with a 7 person team, who’s already experimenting with Teal.
A chapter is over, but another one is just beginning. And dear reader, I hope you’re just as excited as me, because this roller coaster ride will have lots of ups and downs, turns and flips. And I can’t wait to share them all with you in upcoming posts.
I’ll continue to blog about Teal.. but from now on it’s for real :)
Have an amazing week!
Kenneth Hellem
Product Wizard and Business Philosopher
Kugghuset
