What happens when bureaucracy — the very operating system of most companies — becomes the biggest barrier to innovation, agility, and human potential?
In this episode of The Conscious Capitalists’ Summer Series, hosts Timothy Henry and Kate Adams speak with Michele Zanini, co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Humanocracy and global expert on management innovation. Together, they explore how organizations can move beyond outdated, control-heavy structures to thrive in a future defined by radical uncertainty, technological disruption, and human ingenuity.
Michele takes us inside bold organizational experiments — from Haier’s micro-enterprise model in China to Buurtzorg’s nurse-led healthcare revolution in the Netherlands — and explains how even giants like Roche are dismantling bureaucracy to become more agile and resilient. His message: organizations that unleash human creativity and distribute leadership will outpace those clinging to industrial-age hierarchy.
This isn’t just a conversation about management theory — it’s a roadmap for building human-centered, future-ready companies that thrive in disruption and unlock the full potential of their people.
Listeners will gain insights into:
- Why traditional bureaucratic models are collapsing — and what’s replacing them
- How Haier built an internal marketplace of micro-enterprises to fuel innovation
- Buurtzorg’s “humanity over bureaucracy” approach to healthcare at scale
- How Roche transformed by shifting from command-and-control to empowerment
- The principle of freedom within a framework — and how to apply it
- Why unleashing human creativity is the ultimate competitive advantage
- Practical steps for leaders to future-proof their organizations
Whether you’re a CEO fighting inertia, a startup founder designing for scale, or a leader ready to reimagine culture and structure, this episode offers powerful insights into how to build organizations that are truly capable of thriving into the future.
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This show is presented by Conscious Capitalism, Inc. (https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/) and is produced by Rainbow Creative (https://www.rainbowcreative.co/) with Matthew Jones as Executive Producer, Rithu Jagannath as Lead Producer, and Nathan Wheatley as Editor.
Thank you for your support!
- Timothy & Kate