The way we work
is broken
Today’s workplaces are broken. With 85% of employees disengaged, 23% feeling burned out and 37% believing that their job makes no useful contribution to society, work as we know it today is simply not working.
We work in a way that was created for a slow, stable, and predictable world that no longer exists.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
Say hello to self-managing organizations
A growing group of organizations around the globe is pioneering a radically different approach to work. It's based on purpose, autonomy, trust, and entrepreneurship.
The ones that successfully implement so-called self-managing approaches, reap the powerful benefits:
- Revenues: +80%
- Profit: +210%
- Productivity: +40%
- Accidents: -86%
- Absenteeism: -32%
Yet, implementing this approach isn't easy.
Many organizations struggle to understand this new paradigm, let alone translate it to their specific circumstances.
Abstract theories and oversimplified off-the-shelf solutions don't cut it. Neither do outdated business school programs or fragmented blog posts, videos, and management books.
There's hasn't been a place where founders, transformation leaders, and changemakers have direct access to these pioneering organizations and their practices and transformation strategies.
Until now.
What will you learn?
This Masterclass is the result of 8 years of in-depth research into the world's most pioneering firms. Included is everything you need to design, run, and scale a self-managing organization.
This Masterclass isn't about theories or philosophies. It's about practical examples, in-depth case studies, and direct conversations with the pioneers who are running self-managing organizations.
After the masterclass you..
Learned from heavy-weight pioneers who've led big transformations.
Master the structures to run and scale a self-managing organization.
Are ready to put proven transformation strategies into practice.
Have redesigned your organization using our organization design canvas.
Are connected to 1,100+ people with the same ambitions and challenges.
Why people love this Masterclass
250+ changemakers have gone through the 6-week Masterclass. Here's what they love about it.
Enroll nowDid you know?
The transformation approach taught in this Masterclass has (on average!) resulted in the following benefits within the first two years of implementation:
Everything you need
to run and scale a
self-managing organization
Introduction
This 6-week Masterclass contains the key things we've learned by visiting and researching 150+ self-managing organizations. Everything is condensed in inspiring content (video and text), 12 live sessions, and 1 powerful assignment.
Practical details
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Where does the Masterclass take place?
The Masterclass takes place online. There are two live sessions per week. All other learning content can be accessed in your own time.
We use a highly interactive social media-like platform. It’s the place to access the learning material, communicate with fellow students, and work on assignments.
For the live sessions, we use Zoom. Once you’ve enrolled, you’ll receive everything you need to get properly onboarded.
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How much time should you invest?
Besides the two live sessions of 2 hours each per week, students roughly spend 4-6 hours going through the material and working on the assignments. Therefore, we recommend to schedule around 10 hours in total per week to get the most out of it.
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What's the class size?
A maximum of 25 students may enroll per cohort.
Week 1: Purpose & principles
Content
Week 1 is all about your introduction into self-managing organizations. There’s no silver bullet or one-size-fits-all solution, but there are several variations to self-managing organizations. We explore bossless organizations structured around different types of morality: community sharing, equality matching and market dynamics.
The various types of self-managing organizations come back in the case studies in this Masterclass.
In this first week, we provide a practical framework with the main components for running and scaling self-managing organizations:
- Purpose
- Principles
- Building blocks
- Roles & responsibilities
- Information sharing
- Reward distribution
Live sessions
- Live session 1 is all about introductions. Getting to know your classmates, your facilitator, the founders of Corporate Rebels, the tools we'll be using, and more.
- In the second session, we reflect on the course content and specifically zoom into 'purpose and principles' and how to leverage them in a simple yet powerful way.
Week 2: Building blocks
Content
In week 2, we zoom in on so-called 'building blocks', a crucial component for the design of self-managing organizations. The main building blocks are self-managing teams. We explore how they can be set up, do's and don'ts and how to design your organization around such self-managing teams.
Case study
This week's case study is one of the most iconic and successful examples of a bossless organization: Buurtzorg.
Buurtzorg is a self-managing health care organization with 15,000 employees and 0 managers. We explore their principles and practices and deep dive into how they’ve set up their organizational structure and their 1,000+ self-managing teams.
Live sessions
- In this week's live Q&A, you can ask your questions directly to some of Buurtzorg's key members.
- As we reflect in this week's 2nd live session, we dive into the do's and don'ts of the building blocks of self-managing organizations.
Week 3: Roles & responsibilities
Content
The focus of week 3 is on 'roles & responsibilities', another key component of successful bossless organizations. This becomes even more important when scaling up.
We explore how to do it, how to share it, and how to set up a process to keep updating and refining roles as the organization evolves.
Case study
This week’s case study is Viisi, a self-managing financial services company. We explore their unique implementation of Holacracy, how they’ve moved beyond it, and how they have organized their roles & responsibilities.
Live sessions
- In this week's live Q&A, you can dive into all the details with Viisi's self-organization coach Marc-Peter Pijper.
- Roles and responsibilities is the main topic of this week's reflection session. What can we learn from Viisi? How can that be turned into an approach that works for your company?
Week 4: Information sharing
Content
Week 4 is all about 'information sharing'. Important in any organization, but even more so when running a highly decentralized and bossless one.
We explore the power of a clean and simple 'operating rhythm', the power of technology, and the potential of an internal marketplace.
Case study
What better example than Haier, the 80,000-employee manufacturing company. This global giant is pushing decentralization to the extreme with it's network of 80,000 entrepreneurs. We learn about their unique 'rendanheyi' model, microenterprises, microcommunities, and how they ‘export’ their model to other countries.
Learn from the successes and failures of the world's most pioneering company of our times.
Live sessions
- Ask all your questions directly to Haier's internal researchers and way of working experts in this week's live Q&A session.
- As we gather for another reflection session, we explore which elements from Haier's 'rendanheyi' model can be beneficial to your organization.
Week 5: Reward distribution
Content
In week 5 we focus on reward distribution, a challenging but important aspect. To ensure reward structures align with the values of a self-managing organization, there are some vital things to get right. And in many cases, that looks vastly different than the approach of traditional organizations.
Case study
We learn all about Ner Group (a Spanish group of 25+ flat organizations). We discuss self-management, radical transparency, self-selected leaders, and their powerful approach to salaries and profit sharing.
In particular, we learn from Panelfisa, one of the pioneering manufacturing firms within Ner Group.
Live sessions
- In the Q&A session, you can ask your questions to the person who has been leading Panelfisa for 30 years: Satur Ormazabal.
- The reflection session zooms in on what all participants have learned from Panelfisa's approach to running a bossless organization.
Week 6: Transformation strategies
Content
In the final week of the Masterclass, we explore several transformation strategies. From step-by-step approaches used by large corporates to the more radical strategies applied by small and medium-sized businesses.
Exploring several approaches, you'll get a good grasp of the details, pros and cons of each, and the do's & don'ts.
Case studies
We learn from Fujitsu and Bosch how they’ve successfully reinvented parts of their organizations to become more progressive. In more detail, we dive into the approach used by K2K. This Spanish company has transformed 50+ small and medium-sized organizations through a radical, but highly successful, approach to change.
Live sessions
- In this week's Q&A, you talk to one of the early members of K2K to discuss all the intricate details of their transformation approach.
- The final reflection session focuses on the transformation of your (client's) organization. Turning the lessons into an actionable approach to change.
Agenda
The next cohort takes place in September/October 2024.
There are two live sessions per week. All other learning content can be accessed in your own time. Recordings of the live Q&A sessions will be made available.
Dates and times for the live sessions:
| Tuesday | September 17, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Thursday | September 19, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Tuesday | September 24, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Thursday | September 26, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Tuesday | October 01, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Thursday | October 03, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Tuesday | October 08, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Thursday | October 10, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Tuesday | October 15, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Thursday | October 17, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Tuesday | October 22, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
| Thursday | October 24, 2024 | 3pm-5pm CET |
Practical content. Inspiring community. Powerful delivery.
Who are behind this?
We are Joost Minnaar and Pim de Morree. Together with a passionate team, we support organizations to radically reinvent the way they work. Our mission? To make work more fun.
What is Corporate Rebels?
In 2016, we left our frustrating corporate jobs. We were disillusioned with the slow, uninspiring corporate world and embarked on a journey to discover and study organizations that operate in radically different ways.
After creating a comprehensive list of workplace pioneers, we began traveling the globe to visit and research alternative work approaches. We interviewed management experts, explored over 150 self-managing organizations, and collaborated with academics who demonstrated that many organizations are structured in hopelessly outdated ways.
More encouragingly, we uncovered substantial evidence that success for both companies and employees is achievable—when we fundamentally rethink the way we work.
What does Corporate Rebels do?
We collaborate with an exceptional team to assist organizations to reinvent the way they work.
We operate an online Academy, with this Masterclass as its flagship program, and we connect pioneering organizations through a global network.
Continuing our worldwide research on self-managing organizations, we deliver keynote speeches, conduct workshops, and organize events internationally. We author books, blog posts, and a newsletter.
We also manage a private equity firm named Krisos, where we acquire small and medium-sized enterprises and convert them into highly progressive organizations.
Additionally, as a company, we donate 10% of our profits to the Corporate Rebels Foundation—a charity dedicated to eliminate inhumane workplaces.
Though our activities vary, our goal remains consistent: to make work more fun.
Questions 
Answers
Common goals of Masterclass attendees:
- Gaining in-depth understanding of new ways of working and self-managing organizations
- Getting unrivaled access to detailed and practical case studies of pioneering organizations
- Being able to transform their organization from a traditional management approach to a progressive one
- Learning proven strategies for organizational change
- Connecting with fellow changemakers
Around 50% of our 250+ alumni are founders, CEOs, transformation leaders, people leaders, or similar for small and medium-sized organizations. They use the Masterclass to make practical changes in the way their company operates.
Roughly 20% are transformation leaders, agile coaches, and new ways of working experts of large organizations, and another ~20% are coaches, consultants, and advisors seeking to use the Masterclass to help their clients transform. The remaining 10% are mostly employees seeking to personally develop themselves.
Most attendees are between 35 - 60 years old. They come from a diverse range of industries, including manufacturing, engineering, finance, technology, marketing, healthcare, education, construction, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, hospitality, entertainment, energy, and manufacturing.
The Masterclass consists of 2 online live sessions per week, each lasting 2 hours. Along with these sessions, the text, video, and assignments can be completed at your convenience, taking approximately 6 hours. Thus, the total weekly time commitment for the Masterclass is approximately 10 hours.
When purchasing the Masterclass, you'll have a full year access to the material, the platform, the community, and monthly live events.
Plus, the Masterclass now includes a full year free access to all our on-demand courses (worth €948).
Yes, we do. In addition to our 'open' Masterclass sessions, we also offer the option of running it in-house. Many organizations prefer this option as it allows their people to learn together and apply the lessons learned as a team. If you're interested in having us conduct an in-house Masterclass for your organization, please contact us at info@corporate-rebels.com for more information.
Great news! Many of our students have been able to secure reimbursement from their company. Most companies offer a budget for Learning and Development or education that can cover the cost.
To make it easy for you to do the same, we've prepared a template that you can use to convince your manager or HR department. It lays out the benefits of the Academy and how it can be used to increase productivity and performance. Check out the template here.
Reach out to us at info@corporate-rebels.com for any help or guidance.
Yes, we are committed to helping non-profit organizations in their transformation journey, that's why in every Masterclass we offer one scholarship for an individual working at a charity or non-profit organization. The scholarship winner will be awarded with a discounted tuition rate of €500. If you are an employee of a non-profit organization and would like to apply for the scholarship, please email us at info@corporate-rebels.com and let us know how taking the course will help you increase impact at your organization.
We run the Masterclass several times per year. Check out the upcoming cohorts (including dates and times) here.
Yes, we record the live Q&A sessions so you won't have to miss a thing.
Yes. Masterclass attendees get a full year free access to all current and upcoming on-demand courses (worth €948).
Yes. There are various ways to connect with members in our community. Through monthly online events, direct messages, and our social media-like platform. These interactions allow you to exchange ideas, share experiences, and even collaborate on projects.
