Holacracy
Holacracy was invented by Brian Robertson, who postulates the meaningfulness of work as the main factor of interest for an employee. In a personal encounter with the bureaucracy at its worst, with all its complexity and inflexibility of structure, he began to develop his own method of building a company that would reduce transaction costs which arise in operational and management processes.
Holacracy is a way of structuring and managing an organization, which replaces the traditional hierarchy. Instead of operating on a top-down basis, power is distributed throughout the organization, giving individuals and groups freedom of action while complying with the organization's goals. Because of this, the idea has significantly grown and matured around the world over the past few years. Additionally, this differs from another socially oriented form of organization – sociocracy. For holacratic Circles, as a rule, there is a leader responsible for making the final decision, that is, the group does not have to come to a unanimous agreement. Furthermore, there is a top-down formation of teams and tasks. Thus, the principle seeks to reduce the time costs of collective decision-making and assigns management authority to the board of management or to the owners of the organization.
It is currently the most popular self-management solution in the world, with more than 1,000 organizations. Zappos, one of the retail leaders in America, is an example of a holacratic company. They introduced management through holacracy and consequently increased work efficiency, employee engagement, and customer satisfaction.
Holacracy is a way of structuring and managing an organization, which replaces the traditional hierarchy. Instead of operating on a top-down basis, power is distributed throughout the organization, giving individuals and groups freedom of action while complying with the organization's goals. Because of this, the idea has significantly grown and matured around the world over the past few years. Additionally, this differs from another socially oriented form of organization – sociocracy. For holacratic Circles, as a rule, there is a leader responsible for making the final decision, that is, the group does not have to come to a unanimous agreement. Furthermore, there is a top-down formation of teams and tasks. Thus, the principle seeks to reduce the time costs of collective decision-making and assigns management authority to the board of management or to the owners of the organization.
It is currently the most popular self-management solution in the world, with more than 1,000 organizations. Zappos, one of the retail leaders in America, is an example of a holacratic company. They introduced management through holacracy and consequently increased work efficiency, employee engagement, and customer satisfaction.
Universal Problem
Organizations built on traditional authoritarian principles cannot respond to the frequently emerging challenges of our time in a speedy manner. Such organizations exploit people and, as a result, employees are exhausted and cease to generate ideas.
Employees are not involved in the work and (thus) do not accept responsibility for their actions.
Employees are not involved in the work and (thus) do not accept responsibility for their actions.
Solution
Holacracy is an organization management system in which the authority and responsibility for decision-making is distributed among self-organizing teams, due to the principle of decentralization. Circles are formed either on the basis of functional distribution (IT, logistics, marketing), or due to the adjacent distribution of roles for the project (one project, one IT specialist, one logistician, one marketing expert).
Target Image
There will be a type of organization in the future where each employee or a team has a role designated by themselves and the organization; they act in the interests of their role and make decisions together to find the best of them.
Taking on a role helps one to achieve the desired result as well as helping the company to be effective and stay afloat. Each person in this system feels important amidst realizing their responsibility for the result.
Taking on a role helps one to achieve the desired result as well as helping the company to be effective and stay afloat. Each person in this system feels important amidst realizing their responsibility for the result.
Experiment Framework
A distinctive custom in holacracy is the introduction roles, instead of job responsibilities. These are grouped into self-organizing (but not self-managed) Circles of teams. Communication among the Circles is provided by two groups of people, called Lead Link (the management Circle, responsible for the work of its Circle and its results) and Rep Link (the Circle responsible for feedback and for transmitting issues to a higher level). Included in the management Circle's roles are the creation of common goals for the company, development of measures in case of the profits decrease, and operational control over the optimality of the company's architecture; they set the tasks for the Circles.
Roles are essentially job descriptions, but the inherent responsibilities tend to bring them closer to what they really are – what the employee does, rather than the "ideal image" imposed by the job description.
Roles are essentially job descriptions, but the inherent responsibilities tend to bring them closer to what they really are – what the employee does, rather than the "ideal image" imposed by the job description.
Tools and Technologies
To implement holacracy, it is necessary to familiarize oneself with its system of rules (the Holacracy Constitution).
Employees in holacracy take on their roles instead of standard positions. The roles are functional responsibilities that need to be done and are distributed in Circles (teams). Within holacracy, the golden rule is to avoid bringing up problems that only concerns you, and if you have found a solution to a common problem, bring it up so that it can be applied as a rule.
Of course, the company has an owner who initially defines the mission, decides that the company will adhere to the holacratic path, and distributes the primary Circles of roles. After that, decision-making goes through the management and operational meetings, whose rules are defined by the company's constitution. Holacracy borrowed a lot from agile development methods, and many of the methods it adopted correlate with agility.
Employees in holacracy take on their roles instead of standard positions. The roles are functional responsibilities that need to be done and are distributed in Circles (teams). Within holacracy, the golden rule is to avoid bringing up problems that only concerns you, and if you have found a solution to a common problem, bring it up so that it can be applied as a rule.
Of course, the company has an owner who initially defines the mission, decides that the company will adhere to the holacratic path, and distributes the primary Circles of roles. After that, decision-making goes through the management and operational meetings, whose rules are defined by the company's constitution. Holacracy borrowed a lot from agile development methods, and many of the methods it adopted correlate with agility.
Scaling Plans
The holacracy community plans to create more organizations working on the principle of holacracy, to make the company environment fairer, and to make decision-making and discussion processes more flexible. The company environment should engage employees, attempt to negate the phenomenon of "the wrong person in the wrong place," and to allow people to organize themselves and take responsibility for their activities.
Standards and Values
Following the mission and the lack of subordination within the organization are the norms of holacratic activities. Independence, rationality, and ingenuity are the values of holacracy.
Communities and Leaders
Holacracy One is the main community, which was created by Brian Robertson with the help of Tom Thomison and Yoad Rowner.
Allies
Holacracy has been successfully implemented in several large companies, such as Zappos (with the support of the company's founder Tony Shay(, Airbnb and Springest ( also with the support of the company's founder, Ruben Timmerman). Among the advantages of holacracy, the companies denote that employee engagement has increased significantly and there are almost no indifferent employees. It is possible to keep the managerial layer at a minimum level, because everyone in each Circle is motivated to do the best job.
What you can do to join the practice of holacracy now:
- Study the methods of holacracy, read the Holacracy Constitution, and get acquainted with the ideas from The Holacracy Blog;
- Read Brian Robertson's book, Holacracy: The Revolutionary Management System that Abolishes Hierarchy;
- Try to hold business meetings using holacracy methods;
- Listen to webinars on holacracy;
- Become a holacracy coach and help companies implement this way of management.
