The quotes and analysis in these articles comes, with permission, from the wonderful Teal wiki.
The emerging Teal concept was coined in the book Reinventing Organisations by Frédéric Laloux in 2014. Its concepts were constructed from research into more than 50 existing real-world organisations during the early 2000s that were exhibiting new, un-reported styles of organisation. Teal is observation & communication, rather than design & impose. The Teal Organisation Wiki is a good online resource but the book feels nicer in the hand.
“Teal is a labor of love, the work of a joyful community, dedicated to soulful organizations everywhere. Every single person in a Teal Organization has the satisfaction of seeing the entire organization’s purpose come to life.”
Wiki
Work is conducted by decentralized, self-managing teams or networks and authority is distributed. Decision-making is bounded by the Advice Process. Employees or teams do the analysis, create the necessary specifications, visit and negotiate with suppliers, and even secure financing from the bank if needed.
Peer commitments replace the boss-subordinate relationship and everyone who senses a problem or an opportunity can step up and initiate a decision making (not consensus decision making). People have multiple changing roles, rather than being confined by static job descriptions, fixed reporting lines, or functional discipline. People are whole humans in Teal Organisations not just workers.
There are no bosses, only coaches so lots of natural and fluid hierarchies blossom―hierarchies of development, skill, talent, expertise, and recognition … passion, or more willingness to help.
It’s a process guided by beauty and intuition more than analytics. People in these organizations “listen” for the organization’s purpose. Strategy happens organically, all the time, everywhere. Instead of trying to predict and control, Teal organizations try as much as possible to sense and respond. Letting go of the desire to control each other and the future in the end, paradoxically, people often feel safer when they give up the illusion of control and learn to work with reality as it unfolds.
“What product would we be really proud of?”
Wiki
The Teal Organisation Wiki has proposed a road-map for transition and monitoring.
The Teal Diary 