# Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/humanocracy-creating-organizations-as-amazing-as-the-people-inside-them/
- Published: 2025-08-26T21:08:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**A passionate, data-driven case for dismantling bureaucracy and rebuilding organisations
around the people inside them, essential reading for charity leaders wrestling with
culture, creativity, and change.**

Most organisations, when faced with genuine disruption, prove slow, cautious, and
conventional. Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini argue that the reason is structural:
top-down hierarchies, rule-heavy processes, and management systems designed for 
control rather than ingenuity systematically suppress the initiative and creativity
of the people they contain. The result is organisations that are far less capable
than the individuals working in them. _Humanocracy_ is both a manifesto for change
and a practical guide to doing something about it.

Drawing on more than a decade of research and case studies from organisations that
have broken free of the bureaucratic model, among them the Chinese appliance giant
Haier, Swedish bank Handelsbanken, Brazilian manufacturer Semco, and nursing organisation
Buurtzorg, Hamel and Zanini set out the principles of what they call a humanocracy:
an organisation built on ownership, meritocracy, community, openness, and experimentation
rather than hierarchy and compliance.

 * **[Buy Humanocracy from Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1647826373?tag=219)**

This extensively updated 2025 edition incorporates new case studies, fresh research,
and a chapter-length account of how one major corporation dismantled its leadership
hierarchy and recorded $3 billion in savings.

For those leading or working within charities and nonprofits, the book carries particular
force. The voluntary sector has long understood, in principle, that mission matters
more than management. Yet many charities have absorbed the same bureaucratic habits
that Hamel and Zanini critique, namely layers of sign-off, inhibited frontline staff,
and cultures that reward caution over initiative. _Humanocracy_ offers a framework
and a vocabulary for leaders who want to build organisations that are genuinely 
fit for the demands they face.

## Praise for the book

The _Wall Street Journal_ named it the number one business book of its year. Amy
Edmondson, professor at Harvard Business School and author of _The Fearless Organization_,
called it the most important management book she had read in a very long time. The
_Financial Times_ named it one of its best books of 2020, and Forbes included it
in its ten best business books of 2021.

!["A powerful new edition of the Wall Street Journal bestseller that helps leaders
build radically more human - and capable - organisations".](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.
cloud/2026/03/humanocracy-promo.jpeg)

**Iain McAndrew**, Fundraising Director at CHAS (Children’s Hospices Across Scotland),
[shared the influence of this book](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/iain-mcandrew-7b276613_the-countdown-is-on-and-its-hard-to-believe-share-7437928825671319553-ai-Z)
on him and how he leads the charity:

> “Reflecting on this journey, the lessons from “Humanocracy” by Gary Hamel and 
> Michele Zanini have rung true more than ever. The book’s central message is simple:
> organisations achieve remarkable results when they move beyond bureaucracy, placing
> human initiative at the forefront. This philosophy fits perfectly with CHAS’s 
> ethos. Our purpose is to further a mission, not merely keep a machine running.
> The principles of empowering teams, building small entrepreneurial groups, and
> measuring meaningful outcomes aren’t just for corporate giants – they’re crucial
> for charities like ours, where impact, care, and community matter most. By adopting
> this mindset, we unlock new levels of compassion and potential, creating lasting
> change for those we support”.

**More information, tools, and resources are available at [humanocracy.com](https://www.humanocracy.com/).**

## **About Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini**

**Gary Hamel** is a faculty member at the London Business School and co-founder 
of the Management Lab. The _Wall Street Journal_ has called him the world’s most
influential business thinker. His previous books include _The Future of Management_
and _What Matters Now_.

**Michele Zanini** is co-founder of the Management Lab and an alumnus of McKinsey
and Company and the RAND Corporation. He holds degrees from the Harvard Kennedy 
School and the RAND School of Public Policy.

## **Related books on UK Fundraising**

 * [Seeing Like a State](https://fundraising.co.uk/books/seeing-like-a-state-how-certain-schemes-to-improve-the-human-condition-have-failed/)
 * [Diminished Democracy](https://fundraising.co.uk/books/diminished-democracy-from-membership-to-management-in-american-civic-life/)
 * [What Is Philanthropy For?](https://fundraising.co.uk/books/what-is-philanthropy-for/)