Expert of the month: Rachel Happe

April 28, 2021 Janus Boye

“The way we have always thought about strategy is very centralised and top-down. That’s controlling and directive - and leads to very detailed strategic plans. We need to move towards something lighter, that is driven by shared-purpose.”

When I spoke to Boston-based Rachel Happe, I was naturally hoping she would elaborate on her memorable remark from 2018 on how control is for amateurs. As you can tell from the opening quote, what unfolded was not just a conversation about control and communities, but a fascinating perspective on its impact on business strategies, organisational structures and how we collaborate. Many executives are really struggling to be successful because organizational models are out of sync with the speed of information.

Rachel is the co-founder of The Community Roundtable and strongly believes in the power of community to enable human potential. She is our expert of the month.

Design leadership requires community management skills

June 19, 2020 Janus Boye

If you want to make sure that your design system doesn’t get left behind, you need to create a community around it, so that many can participate and keep it alive.

This was one of the key messages in a recent member conference call with Torstein Aas-Hansen, who is a design leader at the Norwegian insurance firm Gjensidige.

Based on his experience as Product Owner Gjensidige.Design, Torstein shared his insights on design leadership, Design Ops and how they manage design at the insurance firm.

Control is for amateurs: Empower the community to change the culture in your organization

September 26, 2018 Janus Boye

Telling people what to do is a sure fire way of not making real change. As well as getting them to secretly resent you.

That’s the unmistakable message from 2018 Boye conference keynote speaker Rachel Happe, who is co-founder and principal at US-based The Community Roundtable (TheCR).