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Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

fastcompany.com

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Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#41

Post by rickcusick »

golemotron wrote: post #9
jcrites wrote: 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.

Right? My irony detection meter pegged when I read this article/email. Beautiful needs, tragic strategy.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#42

Post by engineerDave »

smoyer wrote: post #36

"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.[1] Holacracy has been adopted in for-profit and non-profit organizations in the U.S., France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holacracy

LOL using the root of the word you're looking up to define the word you're looking up, classic!

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#44

Post by briandherbert »

Without more context than the title and the linked email, it's pretty easy to call Hsieh's move brash or tried-and-futile. But the guy is often regarded as the premier management CEO of his generation, and homogenous culture is strongly enforced in his hiring process. Employees love Hsieh because they're (largely) on the same page, not bc of a reality distortion field. After seeing Hsieh's track record and reading "Delivering Happiness" (Zappos' story) and "The Everything Store" (Parent Amazon's story where Zappos gets a vignette), I'd rather watch and learn than shoot it down based on my engineering sensibilities.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#45

Post by smoyer »

engineerDave wrote: post #42
smoyer wrote: post #36

"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.[1] Holacracy has been adopted in for-profit and non-profit organizations in the U.S., France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holacracy

LOL using the root of the word you're looking up to define the word you're looking up, classic!

Wikipedia's "top notes" says "This article has multiple issues".

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#46

Post by athrun »

golemotron wrote: post #9
jcrites wrote: 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.

The first comment below the article points to an interview by Brian Robertson (Holocracy author) which discuss precisely this irony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOpVJIQWgqk

In traditional organizations, ultimate power comes from the top so implementing a large scale change requires a heavy handed top down approach.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#48

Post by JanezStupar »

strictnein wrote: post #38
JanezStupar wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which would be exactly what he wanted.

He'd want the worthwhile employees to leave?

It is completely possible to be worthwhile, incompatible and not welcome at the same time.

I am not passing judgement.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#49

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

bozoclownn wrote: post #18
jcrites wrote: post #3

Similar ideas are expressed in Valve's Corporate Handbook, which describes a company culture where there is no hierarchy, either: https://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes....

There is always a hierarchy. Either it is explicit or it is implicit (which does not mean I'm pro explicit hierarchies)

"Interestingly, none of the organizations I have researched for the book Reinventing Organizations are employee-owned; the question of employee ownership doesn’t seem to matter very much when power is truly distributed."

Excuse me while I raise a questioning eyebrow.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#50

Post by maxwell »

pesenti wrote: post #28

So does that apply to the CEO as well? Is he going to drop his title?

Holacracy® replaces single, static titles and departments with multiple, dynamic roles and circles. He's probably the "Lead Link" of the "General Company Circle", e.g. https://glassfrog.holacracy.org/circles/25
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