Open Work is Teal Unicorn’s collective term for all the better ways of working and managing work which are emerging around the world. We believe the concept of “Open” is so important that we now track it on its own page.
To open up to better work, we are opening up the organisation like a flower, letting light and air in, making room to move and grow, exposing the workings, inviting others in, welcoming, creating possibilities, allowing pollination, letting the value out, letting us thrive.
We must be open: open society to higher consciousness; open organisations to greater transparency and inclusion; open teams to collaboration; open individuals to self-examination, honesty, and vulnerability.
If this all sounds a bit hippy, Open Work can also be defined as an umbrella term for the modern practices and concepts already current amongst “philosophers of work” worldwide, including:
We think the key principles of Open Work are
- Human
- employees first
- advance to teal
- Systems
- learn to see
- understand complexity and flow
- be holistic
- Adaptability
- agility and resilience
- iterate, increment, experiment, reflect
Methods and tools that are out there to help us include:
- Open Space
- Emotional Agility
- Lean
- Kanban
- Cynefin
- Agile
- Chaos engineering
- Resilience engineering
Here is how this page fits with other pages, with links to them. Better ways of working is a good place to start.

Open Work will be a future book.