Week 11 Post 2: Holacracy

Yesterday in class, Erin and Jason presented on the topic of Holacracy. This was something that I had never heard of before this class, so I was definitely interested to hear what they had to say about the topic. I found out that Holacracy is basically a new and revolutionary way of running an organization. Holacracy gets rid of the management hierarchy that most organizations run on in today’s society. A definition that I found from the Holacracy website says, “Holacracy is a complete, packaged system for self-management in organizations. Holacracy replaces the traditional management hierarchy with a new peer-to-peer “operating system” that increases transparency, accountability, and organizational agility” (http://www.holacracy.org/how-it-works/). Basically it is a system to run an organization in which there are no managers and every employee is seen as equal to one another. Once I learned what it actually was I was definitely interested by also very surprised by the idea. I was wondering how an organization could stay organized and successful without a management system.

In the presentation, they talked a lot about the company Zappos which has implemented the Holacracy management scheme and got rid of the traditional way of management. One of the things we discussed in class was how do problems get resolved if there is no upper management involved to facilitate problem solving. I found an article in Forbes that talks about Zappos and how their transition to Holacracy has gone so far. In the article they talk about how to resolve problems in the workplace. The article said, “If employees have a problem with what is going on, they can flag a “Tension.” The procedure for doing so was clarified as recently as April 10, 2015.” It also went on to describe the procedure used to solve the “tension”.

Taken directly from the Forbes article – (https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/05/23/is-holacracy-succeeding-at-zappos/#514c914156dc)

How To Use My Tensions Outside Of A Governance Meeting

• When you have a tension for governance, add it to your My Tensions list (found in the blue navigation bar next to My Projects). Type as little or as much as you need for each tension. Save the tension.
• There is also an option as a tactical output called Tension to capture governance tensions.
• Here you can also add an agenda item, the tension, circle, and a proposal if you want.
• Edit the proposal later to be prepared before the meeting. The benefit of this is that you have a way of both tracking tensions and starting proposals outside of meetings.
• Create draft proposals with multiple parts, just like Secretary does during the Governance meeting. Your proposal will be available to select for the next Governance agenda, but you don’t have to add it to the list if you aren’t ready.
• Capture a tension even if you don’t know a starting proposal yet

During The Governance Meeting

• When there is a Governance meeting open, click Join Governance meeting to be able to add your tensions to the agenda. Then click the ‘choose from tensions' link right below where you enter agenda items to add your tension to the list. You get a pop up of agenda items / tensions, and you click to add it to the agenda.
• When Secretary selects your agenda item, those watching via ‘Join Governance’ link will see the proposal, just like when it is entered by Secretary.
• When you click on the agenda item that was added from someone’s My Tensions list pre-populated proposals automatically load in GlassFrog. Edits to any parts of the proposal made before clicking Accept Proposal are saved (so the originally pre-populated proposal is changed if you change or remove anything.
• Once Secretary clicks accept proposal then the agenda item can be 'checked off'.”

I believe that this is a pretty long process and could ultimately take away from the productivity of the organization as a whole. I think they should schedule weekly meetings in which the employees can discuss their problems and try to find solution as a group.