Holacracy: An Introductory Guide for Project Managers
Is your line manager overworked and does he never have time to answer your questions, validate your decisions or solve the problems you put before him? As a project manager, are you experiencing the same situation and are you unable to find the time to help and support your team properly?
This lack of responsiveness on the part of managers poses problems:
- some tasks are not carried out because no one is responsible for them,
- some problems are not resolved,
- and some inefficient processes are not being improved.
Employees who notice these dysfunctions cannot act because they need the validation of their manager.
What if there was a way to improve the agility of your organization by sharing leadership and allowing your employees to be more autonomous and make their own decisions to get things done more quickly? This system already exists: it is holacracy.
Definition
Holacracy proposes to get out of the traditional pattern of pyramidal hierarchy, which is no longer very adapted to our current society. It is a decentralized management method, meaning that authority and decision-making no longer belong to one person, but are distributed between several autonomous and self-organizing teams.
The aim is to ensure that every improvement idea is dealt with as quickly as possible, safely and reliably in order to keep moving forward. All employees in the company can suggest new ideas for improvement.
Holacracy was developed by Ternary Software, an American software publisher, in 2001. Its founder, Brian Robertson, defines and explains the basic principles, rules, and practices relating to this method in the Holacracy Constitution. In 2015, he also published a book The Holacracy Revolution: The Management System for Successful Businesses.
As for the term holacracy, it comes from holarchy and first appeared in 1967 in The Ghost in the Machine by Arthur Koestler.
Danone, Castorama, Scarabée biocoop, BNP Paribas or even Decathlon, more and more companies of all sizes are choosing holacracy as a new governance system.
How does holacracy work in project management?
For holacracy to work and to avoid anarchy, anarchy relies on a structure and a set of rules to follow to organize work. Everyone has to follow their rules.
Accept the rules
To begin with, the project manager or manager must agree to relinquish their authority and no longer be the sole decision-maker. Then, it is necessary to define a reason for the existence of the project or company. All decisions that are then taken must make it possible to achieve this raison d'être.
Define roles
Although the organization is no longer based on a pyramidal hierarchy, it still needs to define a set of roles in order to function. Here, roles have nothing to do with a job description. One person can occupy multiple roles at any one time, just as a team can have multiple roles. A role includes a name, a purpose, one or more areas over which it has control and responsibilities, that is, ongoing activities to be carried out.
According to the Holacracy constitution, roles are defined by each team, called a circle, through a collective governance process, and are regularly updated in order to adapt to the constantly changing needs of the organization. Thus, each team and each individual has their own mission whose aim is to serve the overall mission of the company.
The structure of circles
In holacracy, each individual belongs to a self-organized team, called a circle, in which there is a hierarchical organization. Each circle belongs to a larger circle that will assign it a specific objective and responsibilities. However, each circle organizes itself internally to achieve its goals, by organizing its own governance meetings, by assigning the various roles and by carrying out the tasks in their field (s).
The governance process
One of the advantages of holacracy is that nothing is fixed, the structure can change. In this way, each circle can update its roles and rules according to needs or the current situation.
Issues and tensions are discussed and resolved in governance meetings. Decisions are made quickly, collectively and fluidly through a structured process called “integrative decision-making.” This system is not based on consensus or consent, but includes the relevant contributions of all collaborators and ensures that the proposed changes and the objections to these changes take into account the needs of the roles and those of the organization, rather than the preferences or ego of each collaborator.
To conclude
With holacracy, you trust your employees, you give them autonomy and you invite them to propose improvements and implement them. In this way, you put an end to a hierarchy that was often too rigid that paralyzed the company. By eliminating bureaucracy, you give more flexibility andagility to your business.
This freedom and this power to act will motivate your employees and encourage them to deploy their talents and to be more creative and innovative. Everyone can express themselves and offer their ideas. Finally, by regularly changing circles, employees have a better understanding of the overall vision of the company, which improves their commitment.
Be careful, however, because holacracy is not for everyone. Some employees are not ready to take on more responsibilities and may not handle the pressure well. Others are unable to take initiative or manage themselves. Finally, it can be difficult to get out of a traditional management style and this requires time.
