In a world of hyperbole it would be easy to look ignore this books claim of ‘revolutionary’ and the abolition of hierarchy . More of the same copy-write promises that quickly prove unfounded when you delve into the first chapter? Not so with this one.
Some folks may already know of Brian J. Robertson from his early days as inventor of the Commodore 64. And yes I can hold my hand up to that one also having spent many late nights mastering donkey kong in an earlier phase of existence. Now Brian plays in Google and his insights provide a powerful read that most likely will cause you to reassess the way you think of management systems.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
In the recent post about Zappos and Googles innovative approach to doing business we themed ‘Holacracy’. Talk about push back from the traditional command and control types labeling the approach as ‘pulp science’.
Try telling that to some of the most successful companies on the planet…
Origins of Holacracy(with credits to wiki)
The Holacracy system was incubated at Ternary Software, an Exton, Pennsylvania, company that was noted for experimenting with more democratic forms of organizational governance. Ternary founder Brian Robertson distilled the best practices into an organizational system that became known as Holacracy in 2007. Robertson later developed the Holocarcy Constitution in 2010, which lays out the core principles and practices of the system, and has supported companies in adopting it.
The term holacracy is derived from the term holarchy, coined by Arthur Koestler in his 1967 book The Ghost in the Machine. A holarchy is composed of holons (Greek: ὅλον, holon neuter form of ὅλος, holos “whole”) or units that are autonomous and self-reliant, but also dependent on the greater whole of which they are part.Thus a holarchy is a hierarchy of self-regulating holons that function both as autonomous wholes and as dependent parts. Here’s the video from the author of the book (July 2015)
Influences and comparable systems
Holacracy has been compared to sociocracy, a system of governance developed in the second half of the twentieth century. Sociocracy had a significant early influence during the incubation of Holacracy, though Holacracy has increasingly differentiated away from it since then.Sociocracy particularly inspired the development of the circle structure and governance processes (described in more detail later) within Holacracy. Holacracy is designed for organizations and fundamentally differentiates the roles of the organization from the people working in it.
In its emphasis on iterative governance, adaptive processes, and self-organization, Holacracy draws inspiration from agile software development principles and the lean manufacturing process. Holacracy is highly compatible with stakeholder theory as its board structure allows for multiple stakeholders to be represented in the governance of an organization and for multiple organizations with shared interests to be linked at the governance level.
Essential elements
Roles instead of job descriptions
The building blocks of Holacracy’s organizational structure are roles. Holacracy distinguishes between roles and the people who fill them, as one individual can hold multiple roles at any given time. A role is not a job description; its definition follows a clear format including a name, a purpose, optional “domains” to control, and accountabilities, which are ongoing activities to perform.Roles are defined by each circle —or team— via a collective governance process, and are updated regularly in order to adapt to the ever-evolving needs of the organization.
Circle structure
Holacracy structures the various roles in an organization in a system of self-organizing (but not self-directed) circles. Circles are organized hierarchically, and each circle is assigned a clear purpose and accountabilities by its broader circle. However, each circle has the authority to self-organize internally to best achieve its goals. Circles conduct their own governance meetings, assign members to fill roles, and take responsibility for carrying out work within their domain of authority. Circles are connected by two roles known as “lead link” and “rep link”, which sit in the meetings of both their circle and the broader circle to ensure alignment with the broader organization’s mission and strategy.
Governance process
Each circle uses a defined governance process to create and regularly update its own roles and policies. Holacracy specifies a structured process known as “integrative decision making” for proposing changes in governance and amending or objecting to proposals. This is not a consensus-based system, not even a consent-based system, but one that integrates relevant input from all parties and ensures that the proposed changes and objections to those changes are anchored in the roles’ needs (and through them, the organization’s needs), rather than people’s preferences or ego.
Operational process
Holacracy specifies processes for aligning teams around operational needs, and requires that each member of a circle fulfill certain duties in order to work efficiently and effectively together.In contrast to the governance process, which is collective and integrative, each member filling a role has a lot of autonomy and authority to make decisions on how to best achieve his or her goals. Some have described the authority paradigm in Holacracy as completely opposite to the one of the traditional management hierarchy; instead of needing permission to act or innovate, Holacracy gives blanket authority to take any action needed to perform the work of the roles, unless it is restricted via policies in governance or it involves spending some assets of the organization (money, intellectual property, etc.)[14][15] Holacracy is thus highly biased toward action and innovation: it defaults to autonomy and freedom, then uses internal processes to limit that autonomy when its use in a specific way turns out to be detrimental.
Holacracy specifies a tactical meeting process that every circle goes through usually on a weekly basis. This process includes different phases to report on relevant data, share updates on projects, and open discussions where any circle member can add to the agenda.A particular feature of this last phase, known as “triage”, is to focus discussions on the concrete next steps needed by the individual who added the agenda item to address his or her issue. The intention is to avoid large, unproductive discussions dominated by the louder voices.
Do the math and the Top Team are as confused as hell. Are we all doomed?
For instance Google searches reveal a plethora of various experts claiming dominion over the process truth. Is it any surprise that the top team are confused. Who should you believe about improving and connecting process, strategy and performance? How can you get it right with so much potential mis information?
Six Sigma – 20.2 Million Business Process Management – 273 Million Enterprise Architecture – 25.5 Million Customer Experience Management – 95.7 Million And what benefit is all that process based stuff doing for organization performance? Why is there this disconnect between process transformation (whatever your flavor), performance improvement and Strategic Intent? Is the disconnect something fundamental about how we think of work? Think about how we manage and control most organizations. Yes you probably guessed it, with a model of doing business from the industrial revolution. Is it any great surprise that process and strategy are at best disconnected and at worst the cause of todays business issues as our corporate mindsets are simply not geared for the customer/digital age. We have got to step up and move our thinking and practice into the 21st century. So let’s scan the horizon and look at a few of the folks who seem to have it… Some common themes emerge when you research the Zara, Zappos, Emirates, Virgin, Apple, Amazon, Disney type companies. Their success is defined by ongoing performance improvements despite the ups and downs of economic cycles, terrorism, climate change and industrial disputes. Performance improvements measured by objective and tangible results including shareholder values, profitability, service delivery and cost control separate these guys from the rest. So what is it? At first glance could it be the improvements in efficiency and effectiveness through classic process approaches such as Lean and Six Sigma. Might it be shaped by removing non value added activities and streamlining activity? Or given the apparent disconnect between process and strategy elsewhere, and interestingly the lack of attention in these leading organisations towards industrial age approaches, where is this performance kick coming from? Latest Research Research now suggests the performance benefit is derived directly by connecting the processes with the customer experience and onwards into strategic intent. Can it be so straightforward? So simple others could emulate this approach? We can trace the origins to a 1997 speech by Steve Jobs “You gotta start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. Not the other way around.” Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon, actually calls their strategic mission as ‘working backwards’. Put the customer first, then figure out what you need to do to align to achieving a successful outcome. We have distilled this approach into the CEMMethod so as to train others in the deployment, with two lead techniques to create this understanding – The Outside-In Strategic Matrix (OISM), and the Successful Customer Outcome Canvas (SCOC). Through this mechanism you can link Process to Strategy in a scientific way. Ultimately there shouldn’t be anything that you do as an organization that isn’t linked to the Successful Customer Outcome and the Strategic intent. Disney refer to this alignment as ‘True North’. Mature Outside-In companies have a Rewards and remuneration system that further reinforces their efforts. People can literally see their day to day contribution. It might not be rocket science and that is part of its virtue. We can all orientate our thinking and doing in the same way to unify strategy and process. References: Steve Jobs talk in 1997 – https://youtu.be/GnO7D5UaDig Outside-In http://www.amazon.com/Outside-Putting-Customers-Center-Business/dp/0547913982/httpwwwstevet-20
Do you want to get in the picture? Join us soon at a session in a city near you…
Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Amazons success
Certified Process Professional Masters & Champions (CPP-Master) Program
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
What do the top teams want to see? What do they crave?
Answers on a postcard please…
Seriously though it is results. if what you are doing in the organisation does not contribute to improving the bottom line consistently you are dead in the water. All those fancy projects, training events, greenbelts qualified etc. mean nought if there is no apparent delivery to the bottom line.
Are you projects contributing to the bottom line or are you simply content to come in on time, to budget and achieve the deliverables? Are you content to deliver even more training to the workforce without establishing the true value of the work you do?
And when we say the bottom line contribution we should mean winning the triple crown – lowering costs, improving service and growing revenues. Winning the triple crown in other words.
Celebrate the success of newly qualified Certified Process Professionals, Masters and Champions. Now watch these guys grow as the transform their organisations.
Sydney – newly qualified Certified Process Professionals
Denver CPP Masters
Adelaide CPP Masters
Sydney CPP Masters
Melbourne CPP Champions
Denver CPP Masters
Singapore Certified Process Professionals
North Carolina CPP Masters
Colorado CPP Masters
Saudi Arabia CPP Masters
Sydney Certified Process Professionals
Do you want to get in the picture? Join us soon at a session in a city near you…
Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Amazons success
Certified Process Professional Masters & Champions (CPP-Master) Program
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
