These companies were built, or in some cases rebuilt, with one goal in mind—to maximize human contribution. This aspiration is the animating spirit of humanocracy, and stands in stark contrast to the bureaucratic obsession with control. Both goals are important, but in most organizations, the effort spent on ensuring conformance is a vast multiple of the energy devoted to enlarging the capacity for human impact. This gross imbalance is dangerous for organizations, a drag on the economy, and ethically troubling.

Mindful that he was challenging a century of bureaucratic orthodoxy, Ballarin urged his audience to think big. “Why,” he asked, “couldn’t Michelin be the Toyota of the twenty-first century—a company that brought the world a new management model by enlarging the freedom and accountability of every employee?

The goal was to build commitment rather than force the adoption of detailed protocols. Ballarin understood that real change happens through persuasion and persistence, not via mandates and metrics. As Michelin’s apostle of autonomy, Ballarin traveled from plant to plant looking for believers and converts. He knew it was their support, more than anything else, that would ultimately determine whether his mission flourished or floundered.

By definition, humanocracy is a radical departure from the status quo. Yet in building it, we have to be careful not to throw a giant wrench into the clanking machinery of bureaucracy. What’s required is an approach that is both revolutionary and evolutionary; that’s radical in its aspirations yet pragmatic in its approach. In practice, this means running lots of experiments—this is how human beings test whacky ideas without blowing things up. Before sending an astronaut into space, we launch a monkey or two. Before putting a new drug on the market, we test it on rats. Luckily, in the case of humanocracy, no animal testing is required— unless, of course, you count us.

Creating the conditions for a cultural transformation takes all the tools at your disposal. You can’t, for example, command an internally focused culture to magically metamorphose into one that canonizes its customers. You have to nudge, suggest, cajole, and ultimately convince people that the new environment you’re proposing really is the best one for the business and, perhaps more important, for themselves. That takes time - and a good sense of timing.

Some leaders look back on their first hundred days and say, “If I could do it again, I wouldn’t hesitate so long to make those key people changes or that strategic move.” Others were glad they exercised restraint. In most cases the timing are dependent on the situation.