23 Topics
Resources for DIYers
Hey all, I'm in the DIY (Do-it-yourself) Support Role at H1, and I wanted to just make a post with some current resources that you might find helpful. In addition, I wanted to solicit requests for additional resources that would make implementing and practicing easier for those companies who are...
02/02/2016
3-Tier Partnership App v.1.01
Description: This app defines a structure and set of rules to handle basic partnership functions for an Organization running with Holacracy®, using 3 distinct tiers of Partner authority and commitment to stewarding the Organization and the partnership. It also serves to provide a core framework a...
07/19/2016
Manager Mimicry v1.0
Summary This app defines a structure and set of rules to handle basic partnership functions for an Organization, in a way that mimics the talent management functions of a traditional management hierarchy. Design Notes References to @SubCircle in this app should be replaced to refer to whatever ro...
07/19/2016
Attention Point App
Policy to Adopt: This policy defines a new type of currency for the organization, called "Attention Points" (or AP's for short). Attention Points will ultimately get allocated to a role, to "fund" the role with partner attention. A role allocated 100 Attention Points indicates the ideal attention...
08/18/2016
Welcome to the Holacracy "App" Store!
Hey everyone! Welcome to the new Holacracy governance "App" Store! What do we mean by "app?" Well, a Holacracy “ app ” is a pre-packaged governance proposal to resolve a common organizational need. Holacracy apps allow organizations to share governance proposals to address common organizational i...
09/30/2016
ARCA Compensation App v1.0
App: Compensation v1.0 Strategy, Recommendations, and Approval Summary This App is intended to answer three key questions in defining the company’s compensation process: What role decides questions of compensation strategy, such as the focus areas for increased or decreased expenditures across ge...
10/02/2016
Badge-based Compensation App v1.0
App: Badge-based Compensation App v1.0 Summary This app allows partners to define and earn “Badges”, where each Badge represents a useful skill (or a talent, capacity, achievement, area of knowledge, or something similarly useful for determining compensation). Partners earn a Badge by demonstrati...
10/02/2016
Scrum Tactical Meeting v1.0
App: Scrum Tactical Meeting v1.0 Summary This app is composed of at least one role and one policy, and allows a software engineering team to combine one or more regular Scrum meetings (such as iteration planning, stand ups, or retrospectives) to create a modified Tactical meeting process (as allo...
10/02/2016
ARCA Compensation App v1.0
App: Compensation v1.0 Strategy, Recommendations, and Approval Summary This App is intended to answer three key questions in defining the company’s compensation process: What role decides questions of compensation strategy, such as the focus areas for increased or decreased expenditures across ge...
12/02/2016
ARCA People Review System v1.0
*Shared with Permission App: People Review System v1.0 Performance and Development Summary In implementing a people review system, ARCA’s goal is to gather and share the richest view of an employee possible. To support the dynamic nature of role filling within the company, we need a review system...
12/02/2016
Strategy Meeting Process v1.0
Part 1. Policy passed in the Board Circle , which contains the GCC: Policy: Strategy Definition Process Each Circle shall regularly engage in a "Strategy Meeting" process to define Strategies, using whatever more specific process and rules may be defined or evolved by the General Company Circle ....
12/12/2016
Holacracy's Whole Product Map
As Whole Product Manager , I want to share my current model for Holacracy's "whole product." If you're unfamiliar with that term, you're likely already familiar with the concept. "Whole product" means everything you need to augment the "core product" to really make it work. It comes from Geoffrey...
03/06/2017
Two-Tier Partnership App
Two-Tier Partnership App As job titles get replaced with roles, there may be a need for “partnership tiers” to distinguish different levels of investment in the company (e.g. “regular” and “tenured” partners). These tiers are NOT roles. This is because they define an individual’s “status” as a pe...
06/26/2017
152 Replies
Cheat Sheets anyone?
Hey, I think that's an awesome idea. Yeah, I had a project captured at one point to turn the constitution into like an infograph. It's not a priority for me now, but I'd love to provide input if needed...or at least see the finished product! -Chris
09/22/2015
Humor in Holacracy?
I think there are a few ways to introduce humor... 1. The general energy....tone of voice, self-effacing, etc. encourage time-outs, questions, 2. Modify the check-in round....encourage people to tell a joke (or share something funny that happened that week)3. Add a checklist item "Did something ...
09/04/2015
Cheat Sheets anyone?
Hey Adrienne, yeah I think that's a great start too. I'd love to see the whole Constitution laid out in one infographic...but haven't tried to sketch it out. Though maybe I could help by sketching out some ideas and just posting a picture for someone to develop?
09/23/2015
Cheat Sheets anyone?
Yeah, I think just creating a mini infograph for each section makes the most sense....then just trying to tie those smaller sections together, graphically, on a bigger map. I can take a stab at drawing a section or two out with some rough images if someone else wants to work together on it.
09/24/2015
Cheat Sheets anyone?
Hey great start! Still looks too complicated for me....but of course, it's not easy to unpack in a visual way. Like where it's headed though!!
10/21/2015
How do you break projects among roles ?
Hey Giuseppe,It's important to have one clear project owner. Someone who cares about the WHOLE thing. With that Role and project identified, then it's kinda up to that role how to manage the coordination. Maybe even use an external project tracker tool. BUT, one way I've seen that done well just ...
04/14/2016
Mistake on Governance Card?
Yep! That is a mistake. Thanks so much for pointing that out!!
08/19/2016
Role Names as Domains?
Hey Keith, an interesting case! Yeah, I agree with Dien about an assumption about traditional job descriptions and that getting in the way. As a Coach, I would have probably started with testing the proposal. Find out the concrete case that requires these domains. With that information, it would ...
09/04/2016
Role Names as Domains?
I totally understand Keith. I have the same experience. Often the clarity only comes after.
09/06/2016
Holacracy and Liberating Structures.
I haven't read the book, but I'm intrigued. Regarding: "adoption: microstructures are small innovative habits that could prepare the road to an adoption of Holacracy especially in very traditional contexts for which the - Holacracy All at Once or Nothing- approach might be too much to digest." I ...
12/08/2016
Holacracy and Liberating Structures.
I think the challenge here is that Holacracy is not just a different methodology, but a different KIND of different. Most don't even realize that they have a default "operating system." It is not something they see...it is the position FROM WHICH they see. So, Holacracy will naturally be misunder...
12/12/2016
policy clarification
Geoff, You remembered correct (well, mostly correct)! Policies can set expectations for impacting domains, but can't set expectations for ongoing action.Adding to what Olivier said, one of the reasons why we say "policies can't require action," is because it's just a common misunderstanding of wh...
03/01/2017
Surrogates
The simple path is for the Lead Link to use the existing prioritization power to say, "attending this meeting is the highest priority among any other work in the circle." Then, if someone doesn't show they would need to explain why. Often this is enough.
07/08/2017
Domains and Policies
Jenn, Whoops! Hopefully, I fixed the video link. It should work now. And yes, you're 100% right..."I think a policy that says "Doors remain locked until 7:30am." or "Entry is permitted after 7:30am" is not governing people but property." That is a great way of doing it. Remember, how policies are...
07/27/2017
Domains and Policies
Hey Awo, just curious, can you share an example? Not looking to challenge you on what to capture in governance or anything, I just want to understand what you're saying and I'd love to have some more info!
07/27/2017
Domains and Policies
Jenn, great questions! Policies related to hours of operation, or other expectations of the people which are typically captured in an employee handbook, aren't a great fit for the organization's governance because the organization doesn't own/control the people, it only owns/controls the roles. O...
07/26/2017
Domains and Policies
I don't have time at the moment for a substantial response, but one way might be through a policy on any company email addresses.
08/02/2017
Domains and Policies
Thanks Awo! That helps a lot. So everyone is a member of that sub-circle? Like, as a cross-link to themselves?
07/31/2017
Quorum for tactical meetings
[@mention:450960215289659578] The reason the policy you mentioned above seems invalid to me, is because "a Tactical meeting" by definition can happen at any time ("no advanced notice"). So, how could someone "choose" to skip them?
10/04/2017
Does accountability imply authority?
I agree (mostly) with Andrew's answer because it is a common misconception about how accountabilites work. However, part of the reason this topic is confusing, even for experienced Holacracy practitioners, is because there are two important caveats to this. 1) If someone is consciously taking act...
09/15/2017
Facilitator Tips
Hey Jenn, A few thoughts. If you're afraid to step on the Facilitator's toes, remember that any participant can ask the Facilitator to retest an objection in integration, so if you think it's invalid, request a retest, ask for a timeout, or even to step in as Facilitator, for that objection if yo...
09/21/2017
Objecting to unclear accountability
Fajar, First, I respectfully disagree with Jean-Michel and I wouldn't recommend "NVGO," because I'm my interpretation "Ensuring..." is still an ongoing activity, thus it meets the definition of an accountability. I think your explanation of the harm caused is good (I'll just call it "reduces clar...
10/11/2017
Project / product retrospective meeting
Fajar, We use retrospectives in H1.Their purpose is unique and doesn't fit the Tactical or Governance meeting structure as you and Eliana stated. I would recommend having "a facilitator" with a specific process in mind, which you probably already have. Regardless, one important step (or expectati...
10/28/2017
Optional accountability
In addition to what Tom said above, you could also define the optional nature explicitly. For example, "Doing X...if needed." Or, if the issue is that the objector doesn't want the role-filler to misinterpret the accountability as something to be done all the time, then you could use, "Doing X......
11/07/2017
Optional accountability
[@mention:491495232183315418]: yeah that's a good point. If by "optional" they mean, "Hey, consider doing this because I think it could help your purpose, but I don't really expect you to do it," then it might be an invalid proposal (though these are very rare). In this case, since the proposer t...
11/08/2017
Lead Link and Rep Link in the Constitution
Andrew, interesting question! I'll take a stab at it.Regarding the Rep Link, I think it may be an issue of English prepositional interpretation ("of the circle" "to the circle", and "in the circle"). Yes, it says, "each Rep Link elected to the Circle," but the context of this is regarding "base m...
11/08/2017
Duty to track metrics
The short answer is, a metric can't require a lot of extra work (or it should be turned down). The key distinction is, "Does reporting on this metric (as defined) place an additional expectation on my role?" In other words, you can't sneak in work by making it a metric (you have to propose govern...
11/08/2017
Payment Policy
Hey Mikolaj, One quick comment. Overall, I think you're going about it the right one. However, this part, "3. Additionally: Partners A, B, C can authorize amount up to xxx level, etc..." should be changed from "Partners A, B, C" to some sort of "Spending Authorizer" role. So, in addition to the ...
11/16/2017
Payment Policy
Mikolaj,As GCC Lead Link, you could propose a policy on the GCC Circle that says, "Only Roles X, Y, & Z have permission to..." and Roles X, Y, & Z could exist anywhere including a sub-circle. That would be fine. However, since the Roles exist in a sub-circle, you don't have any way of con...
11/19/2017
Being a founder / poking people
A few quick thoughts...Some "poking" sounds like you're simply staying involved with the things you care about. Asking for a projection, or getting updates on projects or accountabilities is all perfectly fine. In your example, "So I put my name into the cell for the coming week and informed peop...
11/17/2017
integrated decision making process
Hey Sam, my thoughts...1. 8 valid objections would be rare, so it's possible (as Tom mentioned) that some may have actually been invalid. That would have made the integration easier. But without specifics, I can't say. Although my gut tells me this is likely where the complication originates. 2. ...
12/20/2017
integrated decision making process
[@mention:550889693769022824] -- Given this, "This is a policy about compensation and we are opening the policy to be edited by folks that would be compensated in that policy where the parameters of what or how we can compensate people is unclear (hence the disagreement)," the problem is that the...
12/21/2017
2.4.2 as applied to a Lead Link role
Hey Keith, The answer to your question, "...then are both considered lead link or should one be assigned a 'focus' of lead link?" is, they are BOTH considered Lead Link. Avoiding the issue of why it's bad to do this, I can at least say that it is definitely NOT that one of them would have a "focu...
01/05/2018
Changing Legacy Policy
[@mention:454478741268114544] Does new Governance remove a legacy policy in its entirety, or only the part changed/removed/modified? Hard to say in the abstract, but the constitution does say "replace" or "contradict," so if the two are governing different parts, such that the part of the legacy ...
01/05/2018
Changing Legacy Policy
[@mention:454478741268114544] I think I missed your original question, so I'll back up a bit. You asked, "In other words - can a legacy policy be amended AND [emphasis mine] retained? If yes, can you point me towards proof?" The answer to this is, "no;" they can't. The proof is stated in Section ...
01/06/2018
Failing To Object Out Of Fear
[@mention:454478741268114544] I also think it's hard to effectively coach a single practitioner on ways to feel more comfortable in an environment whose norms reinforce, "objections are judgments." So, instead I think it's more of a facilitator intervention. Especially when it comes to testing ob...
01/11/2018
No lead links at all?
Matheus, As you probably already know Section 5.2.2 of the constitution gives some guidance on this.Here is one way to think about it. The Lead Link role is a bundled collection of authorities, as such, they can be broken apart and distributed however makes sense for your situation. I'll highligh...
01/29/2018
Failing To Object Out Of Fear
[@mention:454478741268114544]: Yeah I hear you. Helping others see and/or understand the truth regarding the ways practice might (but actually definitely will) test some of their tightly held assumptions is a nuanced topic, but one of my favorites. Afterall, it's perfectly fine for an organizati...
01/13/2018
Latest Facilitator Guide different from PDF
[@mention:454478741268114544] Thanks for pointing that out. My role updates the meeting cards, and my usual plan of updating content in small steps seems to be causing confusion (so you're definitely not the only one feeling that). My plan going forward is to have iteration releases every 6 month...
01/17/2018
Latest Facilitator Guide different from PDF
[@mention:456308404254624012] Completely agreed! I've actually added version numbers to the last few iterations of governance cards, but the tactical only had one small change, which is the one that caused the issue. The old one is the last one to NOT have a version number. : )
01/22/2018
How do you manage projets?
I just published, "Holacracy® Basics: Understanding Projects and Project Teams" on Medium which doesn't directly answer the question, "What criteria do you use to determine if you need a project-oriented circle?" but it does delineate some core distinctions about projects which may help.
02/02/2018
Holacracy setup for Startup Founders?
Welcome Cyrus! I can respond to this part..."1) While I want me and my co-founders to have equal equity ownership to be fair to everyone, I am concerned that due to the consensus-based decision-making process of Holacracy, one co-founder may do something that does not align with the mission of ou...
03/26/2018
Shadow Power - Resources
Hey Keith, I have some notes gathered on that, but nothing published. I would love to get some resources out on that. Could you provide a few FAQ-style questions which I could use to structure the content? Things like, "What is the shadow power structure?", "How does it show up?", etc. are pretty...
04/02/2018
Shadow Power - Resources
[@mention:454478741268114544] Thanks. That's really helpful. [@mention:567217983804388642] I resonate with Keith's balanced response. There is a big difference between unconsciously wielding one's power and consciously using levers available to you. The unconsciousness is one way to interpret the...
04/04/2018
Project Updates
[@mention:549059653907130620] this may be duplicating what others have shared, but my guess is that the "problem projects" are high-level ones and even though they have one overall owner, there are tons of sub-projects for other roles within that, which others feel are relevant to share in that s...
05/20/2018
Working remotely
[@mention:449693036337664795] I resonate with the challenge. Shortly after joining H1, I moved up to Pennsylvania to be closer to other H1 partners, so that is one way I tried to address it. We have retreats of course, and I get a lot of that from coaching at trainings, because there are so many ...
06/16/2018
Case Examples service desk organizations
[@mention:486850353354280140] Yeah, I think having each of these teams as a circle could cause some boundary issues, so instead you could:A. Get rid of the duplicate circles and just have one circle.B. Have two multi-filled roles; 1) Customer Service Desk, and 2) Coordinator, with some specific f...
08/03/2018
Is there such a thing as a "valid" tension ?
[@mention:462501715201240916] I agree with Tom's comments above and will just add my own clarification, which is that "valid tension" is only meant in the context of "valid to be processed through Holacracy-specific pathways." So, "invalid tension," really means, "invalid tension to be processed ...
09/29/2018
Is there such a thing as a "valid" tension ?
[@mention:477139080146610445] Yeah, exactly! Clarifications need to be made, but there are better and worse ways to do it. : )
09/30/2018
Experience in Holacracy
[@mention:577633875651499938] Great question. First, Pitch. Meaning, the ex-manager should use the word, "pitch," or otherwise make it clear that they have a strong opinion about this, while also being clear that they aren't mandating or requiring them to agree or do what the ex-manager suggests....
02/03/2019
Values In Holacracy
[@mention:577633875651499938] You're welcome! And I agree that focusing on one set of values or principles is totally fine. There are rarely any objectively right or wrong approaches for every situation, so do what makes the most sense to you. I know for me, once I discovered the different princ...
02/13/2019
Experience in Holacracy
[@mention:577633875651499938] I think what you're experiencing is completely understandable and you just calling this stuff out means you're already doing a damn good job. Brian often says he feels like he has MORE control in Holacracy than he did as a traditional CEO, and while I can't speak to ...
02/04/2019
Values In Holacracy
[@mention:577633875651499938]I think one important distinction to hold is between the values themselves and HOW those values get expressed, i.e. behaviorally. Because getting behavior-based alignment tends to work better. So, we can all agree to "treat each other fairly." But what happens when yo...
02/12/2019
Values In Holacracy
[@mention:577633875651499938] No, not as strategies. And it's definitely not something the Lead Link would care about (or I should say, I wouldn't expect the Lead Link role-filler to care anymore or less about it than any other role-filler).I was talking about them generally, so you could apply t...
02/14/2019
Values In Holacracy
[@mention:577633875651499938] "Has Holacracy One done work on values and if so how did that happen?"No, we haven't and it's a tension of mine.
02/18/2019
Ranking Tensions - Broken Window?
[@mention:454478741268114544] so I hear two questions, one about the specifics of ranking tensions, and the second about how this may relate to interpreting the constitution in general. So, if I’m following, then my response to the first issue is “that’s sounds like a good way of doing it...and I...
03/05/2019
Meaning of 'assign' for the lead link role.
[@mention:568484858377802720] There are a few other sections needed. 1.2 which says, "As a Partner of the Organization, you have the following responsibilities for each Role that you are assigned to and agree to fill..."And 3.4, which gives everyone the right to use their own best judgment... "...
03/11/2019
Org Space / Personal Space
[@mention:573411116128485751] At H1 no one has had a tension about vacation or holiday time, so we haven't needed to clarify that specifically, but yeah I get it. The most helpful answer would require getting at the specifics of your situation, but generally speaking, my first instinct is always ...
03/19/2019
Meaning of 'assign' for the lead link role.
[@mention:568484858377802720] Ah! So, they do two different things. Domains prevent others from doing impacting/doing it without permission. But if you only had that, then there'd be no expectation that the Lead Link DO anything specifically with that power, which is why the accountability is nee...
03/13/2019