S4E04 - Alexis Gonzales-Black on org decision making and inclusive processes

Season 4

Jul. 3

Making decisions as an individual has its challenges, but having to make decisions as a group adds many other layers of complexity. To talk about that, I brought my friend, Alexis Gonzales-Black onto today's show.

Alexis is a Partner and the org design lead at August Public. Before August, she led the implementation of Holacracy at Zappos and helped shape an emerging org design practice for world-class clients at IDEO. She is an expert in organization design and is driven by a desire to make workplaces more inclusive, agile, and fun.

In this episode, we talk about what she's noticing about the future of work in a hybrid environment, why consensus is not the right approach 90% of the time, what truly inclusive decision processes look like, and a quick reframe that enables you to make group decisions faster.

Topics covered

03:02 Moving from remote to hybrid
06:16 Decision making as a persistent challenge
09:04 We love consensus
09:47 Decision making as a spectrum
10:46 Two other approaches to try
16:22 Stakeholder mapping
18:26 Inclusion in decision-making processes
21:05 What's possible when you reframe decision making as a skill learned over time
22:25 What happens when you push decision making down to the levels closest to the work
23:29 Leading the roll out of Holocracy at Zappos
25:09 A tangent on releasing ourselves from the idea that we can achieve certainty
26:01 Back to Holocracy at Zappos
29:13 Human centered org design at IDEO
31:28 What has been most fascinating about the work at August Public
35:23 Decision making as a perfect proxy for understanding what's going on in an organization
37:30 Key things to remember or try

Guest Bio

Alexis is a Partner and the Org Design lead at August Public. She is an expert in organization design, change activation, and the future of work. Over the past 15 years, she's worked with some of the world's most respected companies to design innovative organizational practices and implement large, complex change programs. Before August, she led the implementation of Holacracy at Zappos and helped shape an emerging org design practice for world-class clients at IDEO. She is driven by a desire to make workplaces more inclusive, agile, and fun.

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.”

— Michelle Florendo