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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

#101
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....

It didn't work. See Rich Geldreich's blog, http://richg42.blogspot.com/. People still try and optimize for looking good vs their coworkers on other teams vs simply doing the best work possible.

Examples, http://richg42.blogspot.com/2015/01/open-office-spaces-and-c..., http://richg42.blogspot.com/2015/01/microsofts-digs.html

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#102
So all manager positions have been eliminated. People that were formerly managers have the option of staying on in some nebulous capacity. For those former managers that do not want to work at a company in a nebulous capacity, they are offering a severance package. This severance package seems more like a legal maneuver to force resignations to avoid having hundreds of former managers suddenly file unemployment claims, wrongful termination suits, etc. against Zappos.

I find the language of the memo and the motivations behind it execrable. I do not believe there is anything inherently wrong with flat organizational structures and there's perhaps even some justification for using novel terminology to describe them. Valve's employee handbook is a great example of a flat org description done right. Eventually maybe Zappos will end up with a similar document. It's maybe a little harsh to judge them based on a rambling, incoherent, and cultish internal memo, but I know that I'm not inclined to work for Lead Link Grand Wizard Hsieh if this is the way he communicates.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#103
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a case for some "Tension Processing."

I don't even know what that is, and I already know what it is. Been working too long I guess.

>I don't even know what that is, and I already know what it is.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, pseudoscience by any other name would smell as familiar.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#104
post #56

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 does flat out say anyone who doesn't like it will be given an offer. I assume that refers to the offer you get when you first join where they pay you to quit. So the letter does flat out say, join the holocracy, no more management, if you don't like it, we have a retirement offer for you.

Sure, but explicitly saying "if you don't like it, have a retirement offer" seems a lot more pleasant than the implicit "if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" that comes with basically any major corporate communication. Those are always your two choices when changes come down from on high. All this guy's doing is making option #2 explicit.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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.

You have to love invented Jargon that relies on invented Jargon in its definition.

Can you give an example of jargon that is not fabricated? Most people here have no idea what an onky bonk, a cookie, or a butcher flag is, precisely because they don't do film lighting. Jargon seems to spring up when people of different skill sets get together and do something without much in the way of previous models to pull from.

Not arguing for or against holocracy, just think it is interesting that the jargon is what you seem twerked by m8 .

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#106
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,…

The opposite of formal management and hierarchy isn't "self-management" and "self-organization" but informal power structures and hierarchies. Ultimately, less security and more social pressure and control for the individual. Brave new world of work.

It's an interesting idea. It has many standard pitfalls, as a 1970s paper, "The Tyranny of Structurelessness" points out: http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm

Basically, informal systems are, by their nature, harder to regulate. And "unregulated" is not the same as "works well and fairly."

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#108

It might help this email made it easy to visualise quite how the teams are supposed to approach a problem under this new paradigm. As it is, I've read the thing and I have no idea how it's meant to work. It might be a great idea, it might be a terrible one... either way, it's got a lot of buzz words, which is rarely a good sign. Uncharitably lots of it sounds like giving up on managing - we'll set the strategy and th…

It seems like using "glassfrog" or something equiv is required. Makes more sense when you look at a "glassfrog" example: https://glassfrog.holacracy.org/organizations/5

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#109

Based on the "adapt or get out" tone and unironic use of jargon like "Teal Organization", I picture their emergent culture landing somewhere between Lord of the Flies and Scientology.

Sounds like a case for some "Tension Processing."

I thought you were being facetious.

Re: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: Adopt Holacracy Or Leave

#110
post #60

In an essay collected in The Hall of Uselessness , Simon Leys quotes a Chinese writer's parable from the first half of the 20th Century, about a government afraid of its people that create a massive volume of laws. It had a blank first page, however, which only the initiated knew how to read. The first three entries were "1. Some cases must be treated with special severity. 2. Some cases must be treated with special…

>What does it say on the blank first page of the Zappos employee manual?

All employees are equal, but some are more equal than others.

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