A Radical Enterprise

Chapter 2

Imperative #1: Team Autonomy

Human beings have a deep and abiding need for autonomy. We need to control our own lives and lived experiences—to manage ourselves without the interference or domination of others; to decide from moment to moment and day-to-day what commitments we make and how we will go about honoring them. According to the field of positive psychology, our need for autonomy is “basic, or biological,”1 and underpins other inborn human needs, like dignity and self-esteem.2 Which is why a loss of autonomy can have such serious consequences for individuals and organizations alike.

As we saw in the introduction, dominator hierarchies structurally deprive us of autonomy, which in turn contributes to organizational woes like ...