humanocracy

Hey workplace revolutionaries—

Imagine a company where no one needs permission to act. Where bureaucracy isn’t a ladder to climb, but a relic to discard. Where people matter more than processes.

Sounds idealistic? It’s already happening. Quietly. Boldly. Around the world.

Welcome to the era of Humanocracy.

Why we need a new model

Let’s face it: most companies today still run on managerialism—the belief that control, measurement and top-down structure are the keys to performance. But control doesn’t scale creativity. And measurement rarely fuels meaning.

The result? An epidemic of disengagement.

Gallup’s 2022 global workplace report showed that nearly 79% of employees are either not engaged or actively disengaged.

In Europe, that number is even worse.

Bureaucracy is draining energy, time, and life out of our organizations. A 2017 Harvard Business Review study estimated that organizational drag costs the US economy over $3 trillion annually in lost productivity.

What if we stopped managing people, and started unleashing them?

What is Humanocracy?

The term comes from Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini’s book Humanocracy, a manifesto for replacing corporate bureaucracies with people-first operating systems.

But it’s more than a management theory. It’s a rebellion against the industrial-age belief that humans are unreliable and need to be controlled by systems.

Humanocracy means:

• Designing organizations around trust, not control
• Letting teams self-organize, self-manage, self-correct
• Recognizing that humans, not systems, create value

It doesn’t mean anarchy. It means responsibility without babysitting. It doesn’t mean no structure. It means structure that adapts to people, not the reverse.

Who’s doing it?

Haier (China)

This isn’t a trendy startup. It’s the world’s largest appliance company, with 80,000+ employees.

Under Zhang Ruimin, Haier broke itself into 4,000 autonomous micro-enterprises. Every unit sets its own goals, manages its own budget, and shares in the profits.

They eliminated most middle management roles. They built an internal platform economy before the term even existed.

Outcome? Revenue quadrupled. Time-to-market shrank from months to weeks. And employees? They feel like entrepreneurs.

Buurtzorg (Netherlands)

Founded by Jos de Blok in 2006, Buurtzorg reinvented home care by giving power back to nurses.

No call centers. No complex hierarchies. Just small self-managed teams (max 12 nurses) deciding how to serve their communities.

Result: higher client satisfaction, 30% lower costs for the Dutch health system, and virtually no burnout.

Buurtzorg’s motto? Humanity over bureaucracy.

NER Group (Spain)

A network of companies in Basque Country that share one radical rule: democracy at work.

Employees set salaries collectively. Leadership rotates. Profit is shared. Meetings are open. Financials are transparent.

The goal is not just economic performance—but dignity, equality, and joy at work.

This isn’t a co-op. These are for-profit, industrial companies outperforming their competitors.

But does it work?

Before we dive into the data, let’s give credit to one of the most important movements spreading this mindset: Corporate Rebels.

Founded by Joost Minnaar and Pim de Morree, Corporate Rebels is a global research and consulting project that started with a simple mission: visit the world’s most progressive workplaces and share what they learned. They’ve compiled insights from over 150 trailblazing companies, from Patagonia to Handelsbanken, and turned those lessons into a framework for radically human organizations.

They don’t just write about change. They help build it.

Yes. And not only in niche or creative sectors.

According to Corporate Rebels, which has documented dozens of progressive companies across the globe, humanocratic models consistently show:

• 2–4x higher employee engagement
• Lower absenteeism and turnover
• Faster innovation cycles
• Stronger customer loyalty

The key? Trust replaces surveillance. Purpose replaces compliance. Accountability flows sideways, not just downward.

And it turns out, people don’t need a boss to do their best work.

They need meaning.

What’s stopping us?

Fear.

Fear of losing control. Fear of being obsolete. Fear that without hierarchy, chaos will erupt.

But most chaos comes from hierarchy: miscommunication, bottlenecks, pointless meetings, corporate theater.

The irony? Bureaucracy feels safe, but it’s deeply fragile. It collapses under complexity. Humanocracy, on the other hand, is adaptive by design.

The bigger risk is to do nothing.

Humanocracy doesn’t mean anti-structure. It means pro-human. It invites us to rebuild organizations that reflect the messiness, brilliance and unpredictability of real people.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t about being nice. It’s about being smart. When people are free to contribute fully, business grows stronger. Culture grows deeper. Work feels like something worth doing.

We don’t need more frameworks. We need more courage.

Let’s build companies that are as alive as the people who make them.

Until next time, stay free.

Alex

At Kredo, we help organizations design systems that empower people—not just control them.If you’re ready to kill the process and build real culture, let’s talk.