9 Topics
Developmental Coaching?
Hi Folks, Anyone out there provide developmental coaching as a consultant / external coach, using an adult development model (but not Spiral Dynamics), and have an interest in supporting a company that's practicing Holacracy? I have a client...
09/28/2015
HolacracyOne Purpose
Dear Community Members, Over the past couple of years, a whole lot has changed in Holacracy and HolacracyOne's world, and in the broader movement towards self-organizing, self-managing companies. Given all that evolution, I thought it was...
10/17/2015
Anyone want to join HolacracyOne?
Hey Folks, We're looking for new team members to join HolacracyOne and help us spread a radical new way of organizing power. Know anyone who might be interested? Send them our way! In particular, right now we need someone with a deep background and passion in brand-building/marketing/outreach/PR...
12/20/2015
Issues for Constitution v5.0
Hi Folks - A heads-up: I've started processing my notes into clear "user stories" for desired enhancements to Constitution v5.0 (plus questions to explore, "bugs" to fix, and text/logic refactoring desired). I'm posting these in the issues list in the Constitution's GitHub repository. You can r...
01/10/2016
New Interview re Holacracy & Zappos
I thought some of you might appreciate this transcription of an interview I gave recently, to clear up some misunderstandings in the press about Holacracy, and share my take on progress at Zappos: http://www.foundingfuel.com/article/holacracy-managerless-offices-and-the-future-of-work/
03/08/2016
Name the Role that Feels the Tension
Check out this sneak peak of the first Holacracy Habit that GlassFrog's habit support program focuses on (it's one of many habits & lessons over the 6-month base program): Name the Role that Feels the Tension. If you're not using GlassFrog, try getting your whole team focused on this habit fo...
02/02/2017
Building Holacracy Habits
In case anyone missed it, I thought I'd share my latest blog post here, about releasing our Holacracy Habits program - I believe it's one of the most powerful tools for Holacracy adoption and learning that we've ever created, so I'm super excited that we're making it so broadly available. For tho...
01/30/2017
139 Replies
HBR on Misconceptions about Holacracy
One which, ironically, is itself riddled with misconceptions... :-/
09/10/2015
HBR on Misconceptions about Holacracy
Andrea, I do want to, but I'll resist that urge - if I started chasing down press misconceptions all myself, it would quickly become a full-time job. :-) But I do hope our broader community will help us clear up some of them! - Brian
09/10/2015
Process Time-Outs: How Many is Too Many?
Sounds very normal and expected for the early stage Rebecca, and I think allowing those time outs is a good move (although also being cautious about too many what-ifs is good - though some are fine). Sounds like you're balancing it well, and 25% of governance time in time-outs feels about right....
10/13/2015
Mapping teams to circles
Hi Andrew - Are those reasonably long-term teams (vs. ones that will disband in a few months), and will each face different circumstances and contexts, such that each may want to adapt to its environment slightly differently? If yes to both, then you may still want to have one circle per team, e...
11/18/2015
Mapping teams to circles
Makes sense Andrew; and mapping your current model makes sense to me as a starting point - the structure will evolve over time once you start running Holacracy governance meetings, so the goal at launch is just to map what's actually happening now, not to try to change anything. If you're runnin...
11/19/2015
Third Party Contractors - Partners?
Hey Keith, I think a lot depends on how close the relationship is; if the contractor is long-term and very close to the organization and its purpose, then I think it'd be really interesting to experiment with making them a partner. Of course be careful - Margaux's experience is a fair warning - ...
11/28/2015
Third Party Contractors - Partners?
Hey Margaux,Yep, those are definitely the challenges I’d anticipate. Yet, they are as much about maturity of boundary-management skills as they are about the contractor relationship structure. Many new full-time partners also wrestle with bringing proposals into governance that are really about s...
11/29/2015
Holacracy Terminology Global Challenge
Love that idea Rebecca! Maybe worth creating a page/table on the Holacracy wiki that people can fill in with recommended translations, for a better place to store the info? Just a thought...
12/02/2015
Hola Spirit web tool
I wouldn't be so sure they'll cover that gap so soon - GlassFrog isn't a stationary target... ;-) We've just tripled the size of our development team, and have some awesome new functionality in the works!- Brian
12/13/2015
Partner Relationships Domain?
Hi Nick - I have a lot of thoughts on that - but they're both too many and too nuanced to convey effectively in writing here. I'm scheduled to host one of our coach's office hours soon; if you'd like to join, perhaps we can chat about it real-time? I bet the topic and some distinctions I could ...
12/15/2015
The Dark Side: Firing in Holacracy
Hi Frederick - You can see our approach to firing embedded in this policy. And the actual process used in the Partnership Assessment referenced is documented here.Hope that serves as one example of a more Holacracy-compatible approach...- Brian
12/19/2015
New Pay Model for Glassfrog from Jan 1 2016
Hey Rebecca,First, I echo everything Lex said about appreciating your feedback and push-back here! I'm actually the one who fills GlassFrog's Business Model role and drove this change, so I can clarify a bit: despite those data points, the overall intent and effect of the change was to lower pri...
12/19/2015
Anyone want to join HolacracyOne?
Ah, right - I often forget that detail. We have no location constraints - we're virtual and you can work from anywhere. The only requirement is that you need to be able to travel to the US regularly (about once every other month) for our week-long partner retreats.
12/22/2015
Targeted Tactical Meetings (TTM)
Hey Rebecca - I think you're fine almost whatever you do here. There's nothing special about Tactical Meetings, and the constitution lets you change how they're conducted anyway, so you could always adopt a policy that makes your other project-focused meetings just a special "tactical meeting". ...
01/08/2016
Changes to Policy
It's definitely not intentional that a Lead Link can do that, but you're right, that does seem like a reasonable interpretation of that clause. I've captured this as a bug to fix in the next version of the Constitution - nice catch!
01/14/2016
Issues for Constitution v5.0
Hi Tyler - Absolutely, please do feel free to comment there if you think you can help - no need to hold back. Worst-case, someone just ignores a comment if you've got some Holacracy technical knowledge missing or off; best-case, you nail an issue and add lots of value. I'll take that gamble if ...
01/11/2016
Mapping teams to circles
We just use a Google Sheet to track them; not ideal, but it works enough to get us by (at least until GlassFrog can track them!).We started by exporting all of our roles from GlassFrog to a spreadsheet via this tool:https://holacracyone.github.io...s_roles_fillers.html <https://holacracyone.gi...
01/20/2016
Resources for DIYers
Hey Chris: +1 from me on Dien's comment above - sounds like a great practice tool to me...
02/08/2016
How do you handle generic Circles?
This is totally off-topic (apologies), but thought I'd share a quick nuanced coaching point here while the opportunity presents:Eric, I noticed in your post above that you're labeling/categorizing tensions as either a "governance tension" or an "operational tension". I get the utility in that di...
02/09/2016
How do you handle generic Circles?
Eric: I actually wouldn't even say "you sense that the tension may be caused by unclear accountability or authority", because people rarely "sense" that - that's a logical conclusion, not a sensing. And even the mental model that it is "caused by" unclear accountability/authority becomes limiti...
02/10/2016
Medium moving beyond Holacracy - Lessons ?
Hey Kevin - I've been swamped and so haven't had much time to contribute to this thread, but you've seduced me into sharing a thought with that awesome question... :-)Sounds like the organization would benefit from both of those worlds, and I don't think they're incompatible. Holacracy's focus ...
03/09/2016
Holacracy summary with images (infographic?)
Really incredible work Davi Gabriel - thanks for sharing!
03/16/2016
Going Without A Lead Link
Hi Paul,I know I’m a bit late to this party, but wanted to offer some of my own perspectives here.First, I love the spirit of experimentation, and using the governance process to create new organizational forms and processes to test. At the same time, there are some things you probably don’t wan...
04/04/2016
Going Without A Lead Link
Hey Paul - I read your responses; I have many thoughts, though I'm not clear what you're looking for here at this point, if anything? I'm sensing that my challenging or debating your conclusions is probably not what you're after, and probably unlikely to add much value. If there is something th...
04/14/2016
How Many is Too Many Accountabilities
To echo and add on to Bernard Marie's comment, I'd also say this: you only want enough accountabilities to address tensions that have arisen. You are never trying to "document a role" in Holacracy - you are letting tensions drive accountability clarity. When you first start with Holacracy, you w...
05/10/2016
French version of Constitution 4.1
Hey Bernard Marie - I'd love to get that translated version available on the web and more easily found; can you either publish it somewhere and post a link, or e-mail me a copy so we can put it on our website?
06/03/2016
"Valid" accountabilities
Hey Davi,1) Yes, and it's not necessarily bad practice - it's a common and recommended thing to do in many cases. Sometimes, because a role controls a domain or works in a general area, others need to count on it for something so that they can get their purpose met, and that's just fine. On th...
07/07/2016
Nominating a Proxy for a Role
There's actually no provision that would let you appoint anyone as a proxy, although you can allow someone else who is already invited to the meeting to represent your roles, under the terms in §3.2.2 and §3.2.4. You could technically allow someone else to, but that wouldn't get them invited to ...
07/08/2016
Definition of Policy
Hey Keith - I'd say it is already explicit in the Constitution; a "Policy" is defined as a grant or limit of authority. Are those things you linked to grants or limits of authority, or something else? If something else, they are definitionally not a "Policy" as the Constitution defines it. You...
07/12/2016
Definition of Policy
Hey Keith - See the definition of Policy in §1.4 - it's not compatible with a demand that someone definitely go take an action, as that wouldn't meet the definition of a "grant of authority that allows others to control or cause a material impact within a Domain", nor of a "limit on how others ma...
07/11/2016
Definition of Policy
Even that rephrasing has questionable validity - I'd argue it's governing the person and not a role or the organization's property. In other words, what gives the organization the right to tell someone they can't leave in the first place?
07/14/2016
Definition of Policy
You could have a policy that says no one may use the office unless they agree to turn off the lights if they're the last one leaving... That's governing the organization's property (the office), not the people, and requiring a voluntary agreement from them if they choose to use the office space.
07/14/2016
Definition of Policy
Hey Keith - I'd go with option #1, or maybe a slight variation like "No role may assign a partner into roles within the Lead Operating Circle until that partner has agreed to...". And you're right, that leaves open the question about what happens if current Core Circle Members don't want to agre...
07/15/2016
Multiple Circles - Same Work
Hi Paul - I’m happy to help you think through possible strategies for this; I’d just need to ask some questions first to better understand the context. Drop me an e-mail if you’d like to schedule a chat.- Brian> On Sep 13, 2016, at 3:33 AM, HolacracyOne <alerts@hoop.la <mailto:alerts@hoo...
09/13/2016
Scenario for IDM simulation
90 minutes is my minimum, assuming little framing is needed (which is not the case with total novices). Patrick, I sure wouldn't try it...
09/26/2016
Scenario for IDM simulation
Patrick: In that case, consider using this Prezi we created instead to give a quick taste of it:https://prezi.com/ci5h63r3gkw_...nce-meeting-process/
09/26/2016
Withholding permission to impact a domain
Jean-Michel: Sounds like it might fail the "already an issue" test, but there is no required objection criteria that says it can't be about a resource allocation matter, so that part might be perfectly valid...
10/13/2016
Incomplete Role
A domain does not convey any expectations whatsoever - not the expectation to protect it, steward it, shepherd it, or anything else. A role does that because of its purpose or its accountabilities. A domain is just property - whether you ignore or caretake your property depends on your purpose ...
10/13/2016
Request to Test Proposal in Governance
Hey Keith - You're right, you definitely wouldn't want to try asking the Facilitator to test during Clarifying Questions. Instead, you would just ask the test questions yourself, as your own clarifying questions. If the answers prove the proposal isn't valid, the Facilitator has a duty to step ...
02/06/2017
Request to Test Proposal in Governance
My interpretation is aligned with Margaux's - I wouldn't say you can test proposals "at any time". Like Bernard Marie, I think Clarifying Questions is ideal for anyone who wants to ask questions to test a proposal, since you can ask questions there anyway. Integration works too.
02/06/2017
Search public Glassfrogs
Many are likely not indexed by google yet; once more links are published to those other orgs, google should pick them up...
07/13/2017
Purpose Discovery Exercise for GCC?
Check out Tim Kelley's work with the True Purpose Institute and his book (which covers discovering individual purpose, although with a small modification the same method works for organizational purpose too)...
07/18/2017
The Dark Side: Firing in Holacracy
It's here now: https://app.preview.glassfrog.com/policies/7078339
08/08/2017
3.2.2 and 3.2.3 : practising issues
Capturing a tension and associated desire in that format forces getting some more clarity, which can be useful. That said, I usually wouldn't recommend it for new practitioners - it's more than is needed and I'd worry it would contribute to triggering Holacracy overwhelm. But I think it's a grea...
08/14/2017
Lead Link and agile pull
"Resources" in that context means "budgets" or "hard assets", not people; the Lead Link has no authority to demand anyone work on a particular project. The Lead Link also has no authority to set targets and expect anyone do anything about them; a metric is not a target, and creating a metric doe...
09/08/2017
Quorum for tactical meetings
It's basically defining a strategy - a heuristic for relative prioritization - which is an allowed lead link function, and because any lead link function can be delegated via governance, I'd interpret that part as allowed, but with only the same force as if a lead link gave that as a relative pri...
09/08/2017
Quorum for tactical meetings
Whenever I see passive voice ("will be informed") used in a policy, I mentally rewrite it to an active statement to see what it's really saying; so, in this case, "anyone skipping a meeting will inform the Secretary". Sounds like it's demanding action for one, and two, it's governing the person ...
09/09/2017
Rockefeller Habits
From my perspective, there is no "ideology of Holacracy" - it's just a framework of rules, no more.
09/18/2017
Lead Link and agile pull
Sounds like you're getting it! Consider coming to one of our trainings sometime - there's a lot of hands-on simulations in those, to give you that "see it in action, real-life experience"...
09/14/2017
Lead Link and agile pull
The Lead Link has no authority to assign tasks to roles within the circle...
09/07/2017
Default Role: "Partner"
Mikolaj: When testing that objection, I'd ask the objector if there's a specific role they can point to, with a specific purpose or specific accountability that's made more difficult, or if they have a general sense that it'll be harder on them as a partner to energize any role? If they say the...
09/07/2017
A New Management Library
Hi Jeff - You can see a list of some of my own book influences referenced throughout this post on the history of Holacracy's development: https://blog.holacracy.org/his...lacracy-c7a8489f8ecaThere are some more referenced in the Acknowledgements section of my book as well.You might also look at ...
12/01/2017
Compensation app examples
We just put in place a new compensation system for HolacracyOne; you can see the actual policy in our governance, here: https://app.preview.glassfrog.com/policies/9928151
01/29/2018
What's your process for Role Allocation?
Hi Ali - To echo Bernard Marie's point, they already need to accept the role assignment, unless they've agreed otherwise (e.g. in an employment contract). But I'd like to add another caution here: it sounds like you're motivated to design something here based on principle, so that it feels less ...
01/13/2018
Failing To Object Out Of Fear
As I often say in my trainings, you can have the perfect role structure and the perfect constitutional rule set adopted, but if you assign six year olds to fill all your roles and govern the organization using those rules, you're going to have a disaster, not a high-functioning organization. Sou...
01/13/2018
Compensation app examples
Yeah, all of our badge system policies are tagged with "badge system" - here's the list of everything with that tag: https://app.preview.glassfrog.com/tags/280But the badge system is not directly connected to the compensation system any longer.
01/30/2018
What's your process for Role Allocation?
We use the constitutional default for most roles, plus this policy. However, a small handful of our roles have a different role assignment rule just for that role, such as this one.
01/15/2018
Removing an accountability: Limiting role?
If you're trying to interpret that yourself as Facilitator either way, you're already doing something wrong - it's not the Facilitator's job to interpret and assess whether objections are valid or not, and you don't have the authority to do so anyway. It's just the Facilitator's job to ask quest...
01/15/2018
Failing To Object Out Of Fear
I also find that helping humans adapt to this change is generally a better strategy than "fire them"... and, it sounds like some of the issues Keith is wrestling with may be beyond the normal change stuff, and may be indicative of more business discipline/rigor needed for the organization (with o...
01/14/2018
Holacracy is masculine
Adam: I've heard that reflection before, several times. And I've heard the exact opposite reflection as well from others, several times. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that. My own perspective is that I have yet to see this meaning-making (Holacracy as masculine or feminine) as notably...
02/28/2018
Eligibility
In Holacracy v4.1, my interpretation is that only Core Circle Members are eligible for election, given this line in the Constitution:The Facilitator of each Circle will facilitate regular elections to elect a Core Circle Member of the Circle into each of its Elected RolesThat to me says clearly t...
02/19/2018
Eligibility
Sorry, not a priority for me to explain changes now while it's still in development; once it's closer to ready for roll-out, HolacracyOne will figure out how to communicate/educate our wonderful community about all the many cool changes. :-) In the meantime, if you're super interested and want ...
02/19/2018
Eligibility
Very rough forecast is that a beta version will be out in the second half of this year, and then a final version maybe early next year.Also note we'll have a lot of space at the upcoming Holacracy Forum dedicated to explaining the many changes for anyone who wants to participate in the beta (or b...
02/19/2018
Allocating Resources
Hi Jenn - Well, whether or not the lead link interprets that accountability as including people's time, no one else has any duty whatsoever to align with the lead link's time allocation decisions. The only restriction others are bound to is that they can not "dispose of assets" without an author...
02/25/2018
Compensation for organizational roles
I'd say it's very likely that adding some kind of comp impact for filling those roles is going to create all manner of issues, and likely make the problem worse. I'd suggest the issue here isn't that those roles are excluded - that's just a symptom. Rather, the issue is with your comp system ty...
02/28/2018
Breakdown & Restoration : HOW?
If Partner A ignored Governance to take actions outside of established procedure (legacy policy) and make decisions in an area of authority clearly delineated as a domain of Partner B's role, what is there to do?Some questions first to help answer your question: Did Partner A do so willfully (kn...
03/06/2018
Cold Feet? Or due diligence?
Holacracy makes that reality easier to manage, not less, compared with management hierarchy. Here's a simple thought experiment to illustrate: If it really makes sense, you could create one role, named "Manager", and another role, named "Subordinate"; give the Manager role an accountability for...
03/07/2018
Breakdown & Restoration : HOW?
I'd love to see someone make a full flowchart like that! For now, here's my super quick and overly simplified version top-of-head:If no resulting tension [for anyone] --> Do nothing; ignore itIf results in tension --> Whoever feels it, process it And if the tension is about someone breakin...
03/07/2018
Breakdown & Restoration : HOW?
Those paths are likely more organization/context dependent; it might be a one-on-one conversation, or maybe a better onboarding program is needed, or some more training on Holacracy, or having everyone go through GlassFrog's Holacracy Habits program together. Basically, try whatever you think mi...
03/07/2018
Breakdown & Restoration : HOW?
Also consider encouraging more of your team to attend the GlassFrog Coach Office Hours - it's included with your premium subscription, and we have some highly experienced coaches leading those, so it's an awesome way to get high-end coaching on a super low budget (that you're already paying anywa...
03/07/2018
Holacracy setup for Startup Founders?
Honestly it sounds like overkill to me; anything you can do with a benefit corp you can do with an LLC, but the latter are more flexible. I'm not saying that the default LLC regulation achieves the same thing - it does not - but with LLC law you can write virtually any set of governance rules yo...
03/27/2018
Holacracy is masculine
Really loved that perspective on Holacracy Jasper, thanks for sharing it!
04/05/2018
Holacracy setup for Startup Founders?
Hi Cyrus - Welcome! To build on what Chris shared, I'd encourage you to consider attending a Holacracy training - it'll fill in some gaps in your Holacracy knowledge and help you get a sense of how Holacracy can solve exactly what you're trying to solve for, without the need for an external cont...
03/26/2018
Brainstorming
I get asked this question a lot, and I give a different answer than Jean-Michel's. The tactical meeting is all about getting the tension holder what they need, and brainstorming is absolutely welcomed during the tactical meeting if that's what they need - it's just a request for help of a certa...
04/28/2018
Is Holacracy a kind of democracy
I sure wouldn't say Holacracy uses "consent" as a model. The only place I see Holacracy using what I would call "consent" is in the relationship contract between the human and the organization (i.e. the employment contract and any basic behavioral agreements that go with it, or the equivalent): ...
08/20/2018
Is Holacracy a kind of democracy
I think you've got it Shammi - it's definitely not democracy, and I'm grateful for that; I would never want to work in a democratic company, seems like it'd be a huge leap backwards from what I'm used to and value now.
08/20/2018
Holacracy and profit?
I don't see these as conflicting; in fact, the most effective way I know of to generate the best possible financial results for investors is to run a purpose-driven company, and put serving that purpose above maximizing short-term profits. There's a bunch of research out there that confirms this...
01/08/2019
System Knowledge & Power
I do think those who know the rules and how to use them effectively have more power to lead their roles in service of the organization's purpose. I'm not sure I'd say they get more personal power to meet their own personal goals; perhaps that too, but only to the extent it doesn't hurt the organ...
02/23/2019
System Knowledge & Power
(So, to your point: I agree, it definitely seems useful for the ex-CEO to develop a really deep capacity with the rules of Holacracy, so they can wield lots of power. And of course the same is true for everyone else too.)
02/23/2019
System Knowledge & Power
So far as I can see, it is of paramount importance that any founder or ex CEO becomes one of the de-facto experts in the use of Holacracy to ensure that they are able to contribute what they have to offer to the organisation and if they don't, especially in the early stages of adoption, there is ...
02/27/2019