• Agile & Scrum Basics

Your Complete Information Guide on Holacracy

Holacracy, a word you probably don’t hear more often. It is a control model for organizations where there is no top-down management, but distributed authority among all employees. Because of the dynamics and transparency, you can always make adjustments. It is an Agile way of working and organizing.

In 2007, Brian Robertson hurled the Holacracy approach into the wider world. As a counterpart to hierarchy and bureaucracy. As an advocate of workplace accountability and a flatter organizational structure. This Agile way of working is ideal for organizations that (want to) be self-managing. You remain continuously on the ball and agile.

In this article, we discuss the following topics:

• What is Holacracy?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of Holacracy?
• What are the differences from traditional working?

What is Holacracy?

Management is divided throughout the organization by circles and roles. A circle consists of several roles that collectively have a purpose (goal). Each role has its own purpose that contributes to that of the circle. Under each role are a number of accountabilities (responsibilities), which outline what is expected of the person filling that role.

Thus, as an organization, you undergo a number of changes:

• From static to dynamic
• From delegating to distributing
• From large-scale reorganization to rapid, iterative improvements
• From political game to transparent rules of the game

Gone are job descriptions. Hello roles. In Holacracy, also called Holacracy in Dutch, we work with flexible roles instead of job descriptions. A role defines purpose, responsibilities and domains. When someone has a role in a domain A, the role can do anything within this piece of property. Thus, everyone is an entrepreneur within their own role.

Each circle has four fixed roles, in addition to those specific to the company:

• Lead Link: responsible for distributing roles.
• Rep Link: focuses on circle functioning and removes obstacles.
• Facilitator: pay particular attention to the structure and ground rules of Holacracy.
• Secretary: schedules meetings, keeps track of roles and records outcomes of meetings.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Holacracy?

Advantages

• It is crystal clear who has what roles and responsibilities;
• With changing roles and freedom to achieve goals, competencies are better utilized;
• The organization can respond quickly to opportunities. Roles and associated responsibilities can be adjusted in the monthly meeting of the circle;
• People within the organization get variety of experience because you can easily switch roles. This provides a positive stimulus to talent development;
• People influence the role they choose. So they analyze personal qualities and consciously choose an appropriate role.

Cons

• There are many rules. For example, Holacracy has about 30 rules that the leadership will have to sign in order to release power;
• Often Holacracy seen as “complex. Its many rules mean it needs good guidance to succeed.

What are the differences from traditional working?

It can be quite difficult to say goodbye to the traditional way of working. You don’t know exactly what to expect. Well, we do. Here’s what you can roughly expect and what the big differences are from traditional working:

1. Static job descriptions are replaced by movable roles

Job descriptions are often imprecise and less relevant to daily work. In Holacracy, people often have multiple roles on various teams. Role descriptions are continuously updated by the executive team.

2. Delegated authority is distributed

In holacratic companies, authority and decision-making power is fully distributed. Thus, decisions are made locally by the self-organized teams. The traditional hierarchy is replaced by a series of interconnected autonomous team, also called circles.

3. Rapid, iterative improvements replace major reorganizations

In Holacracy, you update the structure of the organization every month. This evolution happens in frequent small steps rather than rare major reorganizations. Holacratic companies reorganize themselves as often as necessary.

4. Transparency replaces any office politics

‘This is how we always do it here,’ a common cry. Often no one knows why. In Holacracy, the rules are made through a process detailed in the Holacracy Constitution. Everyone knows these rules, even the CEO. That complete transparency prevents office politics.