The End of the Hero CEO? Buurtzorg as a model for distributed leadership
In an interview with The FINANCIAL, systems strategist Sonali Sharma points to Buurtzorg as the example of how decisions can be shared across self-managing teams.
On 9 October 2026 The FINANCIAL published an interview with Sonali Sharma, author of The 90% Code: Rewriting Power for the AI Era. Sharma argues that the “Hero Model” of leadership, in which every important decision runs through a few people at the top, can no longer keep up in a fast-moving, AI-driven world.
Asked what distributed decision-making looks like in practice, she answers: “The model I point to is Buurtzorg.” She describes how Buurtzorg, started by Jos de Blok with four nurses in 2006, works with self-managing teams instead of managers.
Why it works, according to Sharma
Every team has three things together: real authority to decide, direct accountability for results, and access to the same information as leadership. Accountability does not disappear; it is shared within the teams and visible to colleagues every day. Regional coaches support the teams but do not tell them what to do, and leadership holds the shared purpose and values.
Her advice to boards is to start small: one team, one real decision, ninety days.