Master the magic of creating empowered and happy teams.
UNMANAGED is a practical guide to managing less — and getting better, faster, happier teams in return. Built from 15+ years of agency and knowledge-work transformations.
“An indispensable guide for leaders in today’s rapidly evolving world — a must-read for any leader committed to thriving in modern organizations.”— Reader endorsement
What’s inside
Six sections, one practical playbook
UNMANAGED breaks the practice of managing less down into six progressive sections. Each builds on the last, so by the end you have a full toolkit for empowering teams without losing accountability.
The Manager Tax Manifesto
Why the way we manage is quietly costing organizations their best work — and what it would take to claim that lost productivity back.
Understanding and Opportunity
The cognitive and behavioral foundations that explain why teams stall, and where the real opportunities to unlock them are hiding.
Scope and Alignment
How to scope work and align teams so projects start strong and stay clear, instead of unraveling under their own weight.
Productive Flow
What it takes for teams to spend their days in deep, high-value work — and how managers can stop accidentally interrupting that flow.
Leadership Challenges
The harder problems that show up when you start managing less and leading more, and how to navigate them without losing the room.
The Ingenious Manager
What an empowered, inclusive, high-trust management practice actually looks like in the real world — practiced, not preached.
About the author
Jack Skeels
Author · Founder, Better CompanyJack has spent more than 15 years helping over 200 agencies, marketers, and project-driven organizations work with less chaos and more clarity. He founded AgencyAgile in 2011, and now leads Better Company, where the methods continue to evolve.
UNMANAGED distills what he and his team learned across thousands of hours of training, coaching, and consulting — and turns it into a practice any leader can adopt.
Who should read this
Managers & team leads
Anyone who wants to manage less and lead more without losing the room.
Agency owners & CEOs
Leaders watching their teams grind through chaos and looking for a different way.
Knowledge-work practitioners
Designers, engineers, strategists, marketers tired of broken processes.
Start unmanaging now
Read the book, then put it into practice. The Resources page has every reference, citation, and end-note from the book; the Get Started page shows you the first moves.