The liberated company: myth or reality?

The founding principle of a liberated company is to let employees take individual and collective initiatives rather than imposing directives and controlling them later. The key words are trust, autonomy and recognition, which allow employees to fully express their skills. Collective intelligence takes a central place here.

The pyramid system is being abandoned in favor of self-direction. However, it is not an anarchic system; rules guarantee everyone's freedom, as well as the vision and culture of the company.

Liberated business: what are the benefits of the model?

• Increased individual and collective performance: improvement of intrinsic motivation, well-being and commitment? Notion of the meaning of work
• Develop agility thanks to a non-fixed structure, free from complex organization charts, allowing you to constantly reinvent yourself
• Develop innovation by giving free rein to everyone's creativity and initiative

What are the criticisms that can be made of the liberated company?

• A form of organization and management that is unsuited to French culture, traditionally pyramidal and up-down
• An increase in RPS due to responsibilities and increased pressure for most employees
• A risk of drifting where some employees could take power over others
• The importance of a “liberating leader” capable of staying the course and the vision after having succeeded in uniting a majority of employees to try the experience

We certainly do not yet have enough perspective today to make an objective and quantified assessment of the liberated companies. Nevertheless, the debate is open and more and more companies are taking the plunge. However, liberation remains a long and complex process, where no magic recipe exists, the model to be used must be adapted to suit the company concerned.

To go further on the subject: I. Getz and B. Carney are the two authors who really theorized and popularized the concept of free enterprise in their book” Liberté & Cie: when the freedom of employees makes companies successful ”, published in 2012.