Problem addressed

Before the transformation, the organisation was close to insolvency. Rigid hierarchies, central control and heavy bureaucracy produced long decision paths, an elaborate reporting system, overloaded managers – especially middle management – and frustrated teams. The consequences were high sickness-absence rates, poor decisions and a dangerous financial and cultural imbalance. At the same time the whole social and care sector faces a severe shortage of skilled workers, constantly changing client needs and external shocks – pandemics, uncertain public budgets – that centralised, top-down structures cannot react to quickly enough. In the social economy these effects of outdated working cultures show up as if under a magnifying glass.

Innovative solution

Instead of reforming the old structure, AWO Mönchengladbach made a radical break and moved to a self-organised, hierarchy-free model based on the BetaCodex. Today the organisation works like a network of mini-enterprises (“cells”). Decisions are made where the work is – without committees or approval chains – by the colleagues and situational peer groups who hold the relevant knowledge and responsibility; what counts is evidence and competence, not status. The organisation rests on two complementary structures: a value-creation structure, in which cells decide autonomously, close to clients and impact, and a compliance structure that does not control but enables – setting the safe legal, financial and ethical frame within which self-organisation can work; where a decision binds the whole, it is taken jointly and visibly, with no votes but reasoned by evidence. Cells manage their own value flows with no budgets and no approvals (a value-flow accounting makes impact visible for orientation, not control; sustained deficits trigger more visibility, not permission). Crucially, the system has matured into shared, written frameworks rather than ad-hoc practice: how we decide, how we create value, and – since January 2026 – how we set pay. Salaries are no longer fixed cell by cell but follow one transparent, organisation-wide model: market-based bands per role, set yearly by a peer market round, from which each individual salary is calculated (never negotiated, no bonuses) on the basis of two impact dimensions – “skill & responsibility” assessed by the cell and “contribution to the whole” assessed by an organisation-wide peer round. A simple, real example of everyday autonomy: if an educator needs new sandpit toys, she simply buys them – no application, no form, no approval layer – because she is closest to the children, the parents and the situation. The logic of every model is radically transparent and accessible to all, so that transparency enables responsibility without control.

Key results and benefits

The organisation moved from the brink of insolvency back to stability, with faster, more flexible decisions taken close to the people it serves. A key measurable outcome concerns staff health: in a joint analysis with the health insurer AOK, colleagues at AWO Mönchengladbach had on average around 10 fewer sick days per year than the sector average, and the share of colleagues with no absence at all was notably higher. Lower staff turnover and a more attractive employer profile have made the organisational model a real advantage in recruiting and retaining skilled workers – decisive in a sector facing severe labour shortages. Self-organisation and trust have proven to work in practice, even in a complex welfare organisation. Transparency is supported by radically open figures and a value-creation accounting approach, and continuous improvement is anchored through regular annual cell reviews, thematic knowledge conferences, all-hands meetings and an annual OpenSpace congress with more than 100 colleagues. The experience is shared widely – through the “radikal anders” podcast, talks to other organisations and a nationwide AWO barcamp. The approach has also matured from practice into durable, codified frameworks – for how the organisation decides, how it accounts for value, and, since January 2026, how it sets pay – showing that the change is firmly anchored rather than a temporary experiment.

Potential for mainstreaming

The model is highly transferable. It builds on an established framework (the BetaCodex / New Work, drawing on thinkers such as Niels Pfläging, Douglas McGregor, Mary Parker Follett and Frederic Laloux) rather than on factors unique to Mönchengladbach, and it addresses challenges shared across the whole social and care sector: bureaucracy, staff shortages, sickness absence and slow decision-making. Importantly, the operating system has been codified into shared written frameworks – “how we decide”, “how we create value” and a full salary model – so that other organisations can adopt concrete, documented building blocks rather than a vague idea: autonomous cells, value-flow accounting, role-based transparent pay derived from impact instead of negotiation, OpenSpace and other participation formats, and decision-making at the point of knowledge. Transfer is already happening in practice: AWO Mönchengladbach shares its experience through the “radikal anders” podcast, a nationwide AWO barcamp and talks at other organisations (for example with Caritas and Diakonie), and the case is cited by external experts as a model for a skills-based social economy.