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Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

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Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#21
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine this line 80% in "Good job that you've made it this far reading the memo. Please send me back an e-mail with your name + banana in the title, and attach an image of a banana or else you're fired. Thank you!" I wonder how much staff they would have to fire ...

I would not respond even if I read that email. Such company would be broken, and this seems like good way out.

Which would be exactly what he wanted.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#23
I'm a bit pressed for time right now but wanted to leave a like to Ken Wilber[1] who did a lot to popularise the term holarchy. If you haven't heard of him or read any of his books ya'll might find him interesting.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#24
" Self-Management is not a startling new invention by any means. It is the way life has operated in the world for billions of years, bringing forth creatures and ecosystems so magnificent and complex we can hardly comprehend them. Self-organization is the life force of the world, thriving on the edge of chaos with just enough order to funnel its energy, but not so much as to slow down adaptation and learning."

I think he's referring to evolution here, but it has no end goal in mind. It just happens, and just as often as organisms adapt over time, many simply die off.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#25

I have only skimmed the memo, so I may be missing something, but calling this an "ultimatum" and saying things like "adopt holacracy or leave" seems awfully overdramatic. If a CEO says "Hey, we're rearranging the org chart now," and you can't can't bear the thought of working under the new org chart, then unless you're in a position to talk him out of it, your only real option is to quit. Nobody has to mention the op…

It may not technically be an ultimatum, but it quacks like one.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#26

I have only skimmed the memo, so I may be missing something, but calling this an "ultimatum" and saying things like "adopt holacracy or leave" seems awfully overdramatic. If a CEO says "Hey, we're rearranging the org chart now," and you can't can't bear the thought of working under the new org chart, then unless you're in a position to talk him out of it, your only real option is to quit. Nobody has to mention the op…

I am sorry that I cannot leave a comment of greater value, but this makes me wonder if Zappos needs to reduce the number of employees they have, and if this is a good way to essentially perform a stealth layoff by getting rid of those least willing to be true believers.

I have no reason based in fact to believe that this would be the case; this is just speculation based on my previous impression of Tony Hsieh with respect to his controversial impact on downtown Austin. He seems to be rather invested in being a visionary (if not messianic) figure.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#27
post #2

An summary of the article and the concept that Tony Hsieh wrote: "We’ve been operating partially under Holacracy and partially under the legacy management hierarchy in parallel for over a year now. Having one foot in one world while having the other foot in the other world has slowed down our transformation towards self-management and self-organization. [W]e haven't made fast enough progress towards self-management,…

> "Holacracy is a social technology or system of organizational governance in which authority and decision-making are distributed throughout a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested at the top of a hierarchy", according to Wikipedia. Yet there he is at the top of the hierarchy telling people to do it.

What if the holocracy decides they like hierarchies?

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#29
post #2

An summary of the article and the concept that Tony Hsieh wrote: "We’ve been operating partially under Holacracy and partially under the legacy management hierarchy in parallel for over a year now. Having one foot in one world while having the other foot in the other world has slowed down our transformation towards self-management and self-organization. [W]e haven't made fast enough progress towards self-management,…

So informal high school cliques vs a Hierarchy - I can guess what the average outcome will be.

This is my main concern. I have never studied the concept in detail but I don't see how self-organisation addresses any problem.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#30

A counterpoint to "holacracy", "The Tyranny of Structurelessness" by Joreen: http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm

Are you sure it's a counterpoint? The concluding "Principles of democratic structuring" are very much a recipe for implementing structurelessness effectively. The final words:

> When these principles are applied, they insure that whatever structures are developed by different movement groups will be controlled by and responsible to the group. The group of people in positions of authority will be diffuse, flexible, open, and temporary. They will not be in such an easy position to institutionalize their power because ultimate decisions will be made by the group at large. The group will have the power to determine who shall exercise authority within it.

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