Magazine

How to transform hierarchical management into Agile management?

When joining a new company or team, employees often fear feeling lost within the organization they are entering. For example, they may worry that their freedom to accomplish tasks or manage their own work will be restricted.

Between authoritarian managers who don’t allow employees to express themselves, and teams where employees don’t know how to communicate or listen to each other, one can quickly face difficulties in executing tasks.

At Qwerio, in order to foster synergy of skills and true collective intelligence, collaboration is based on the principles of holacracy.

The main goal of this approach is to establish a new power dynamic within the company’s organization, a form of differentiating governance that allows everyone to find their place—bringing their strengths to the company and teams, while also working on their areas for improvement.

But before diving into the details, a bit of history.

Holacracy comes from two Greek words (surprising, you might say): “holos,” meaning “an entity that is both a whole and a part of a whole,” and “kratos,” meaning “power.” The organization must therefore take precedence over the egos of its members so that the team’s potential can be fully realized. Holacracy uses innovative organizational principles focused on operations to bring out the best in each member, while putting aside personal interests, personal blockages, and anything that is emotionally charged or self-serving.

Concretely, how is holacracy implemented?

This requires agility from the employees. It involves the adoption of the rules of the game by the organization, and first and foremost by the leader. The rules of the game are written in a constitution accepted by all, a constitution in which the company’s purpose tends to be found. In the latter, we will find the three key points of holacracy that we will detail.

The basic principles:

All decisions made must be achievable, feasible within a short time horizon. The tangible must take precedence over the intangible, and barriers to realization must be removed.

Furthermore, all decisions can be challenged as soon as new ones better address the problem at hand at time t.

Only the obstacles related to the problem being addressed at the moment should be taken into account.

• Meetings are privileged moments in organizational management.

Holacracy involves holding organizational and operational meetings.

One is not less important than the other. It is important to understand that each has a purpose for the company. Organizational meetings answer the question: “How to organize?”, while operational meetings answer “How to do it?”.

Within governance meetings, each person has the right to express their opinion. Divergent opinions, even if they are in the minority, are taken into account in the decision-making process. This is how holacracy differs from democracy. Everyone’s good will is heard thanks to what could be called a mediator. As long as an idea is defended with tangible arguments, it can be accepted, even if it does not have unanimous support. Egos are set aside so that each person’s positivity can come through.

Operational meetings, on the other hand, are much shorter; they aim to allocate tasks to employees so that the actions to be carried out on a given day are successfully completed. The mediator again ensures the allocation by making sure that a minimum amount of time is allocated to it.

• In order to reinforce the beneficial effects of the previously mentioned points, holacracy introduces two major innovations: dynamic circles and double links.

Both aim to facilitate changes and to circulate information quickly without jeopardizing the structure of the organization and thus, wasting time.

Concretely, how is holacracy implemented?

This requires agility from the employees. It involves the adoption of the rules of the game by the organization, and first and foremost by the leader. The rules of the game are written in a constitution accepted by all, a constitution where the company’s purpose is likely to be found. In this document, we find the three key points of holacracy that we will detail.

The basic principles:

All decisions made must be achievable and feasible within a short timeframe. The tangible must take precedence over the intangible, and barriers to realization must be removed.

Furthermore, all decisions can be reconsidered if new ones better address the problem at hand at that moment.

Only obstacles directly related to the problem being addressed should be taken into account.

• Meetings are key moments in organizational management.

Holacracy involves holding organizational and operational meetings.

One is not less important than the other. It is essential to understand that each has a distinct purpose for the company. Organizational meetings answer the question: “How to organize?”, while operational meetings answer: “How to do it?”.

Within governance meetings, everyone has the right to express their opinion. Diverging opinions, even if they are in the minority, are considered in the decision-making process. This is how holacracy differs from democracy. Everyone’s goodwill is heard thanks to what might be called a mediator. As long as an idea is supported by tangible arguments, it can be accepted even if it does not achieve unanimity. Egos are set aside to allow each individual’s positivity to emerge.

Operational meetings, on the other hand, are much shorter. They aim to allocate tasks to employees so that the actions to be carried out that day are completed successfully. The mediator again oversees the allocation to ensure that minimal time is spent on it.

• To reinforce the positive effects of the previously mentioned points, holacracy introduces two major innovations: dynamic circles and double links.

Both aim to facilitate change and to ensure that information circulates quickly without jeopardizing the structure of the organization and thus avoiding time loss.

Holacracy, an agile management method gaining ground!

Holacracy is a horizontal organization based on the new structuring that the world is developing in terms of organization.

It gives everyone the opportunity to find their place and purpose within the company in order to discover together the ultimate goal of the organization. Holacracy helps uncover and leverage everyone’s talents to shape the company’s future.

At Qwerio, this is what we have been doing for several years now.

Shall we meet at our offices to show you what it looks like? 😉

Author: Jean Still – Microsoft BPM Consultant