“Holacracy in Times of Crisis”

for: Teal Around The World (#TATW2023)

Date: Thursday, the 2rd. of March 2023

Tom van der Lubbe, Co-founder Viisi Hypotheken

 • Introduction
• About Crisis: Hemingway & Seneca
• The “10 Rules of Viisi” in Times of Crisis
• Zooming in:
Outline • No secrecy, but “radical transparency”
• No bosses, everybody a leader
• No “HR” hiring, but hiring by the
team itself
• Q&A
 Tomvan
Tom vander
derLubbe
Lubbe

• 26th. of May 1968 (Dutch)

• The Hague (Netherlands)
• Aloysius College (jesuits)
• University of Leiden
• 1988: survived cancer
• Sciences Po Paris/ FU Berlin
• McKinsey
• Financieel Planner in Berlin (MLP)
• CEO MLP Switzerland & The Netherlands
• since 2010: Co-Founder of Viisi

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomvanderlubbe/
 Viisi

● 2010 founded in Amsterdam

● 4 co-founders, 40 Viisionairs (average)
● independent mortgage advisor, only active in The Netherlands
● Yearly volume: € 1 billion, total mortgages/ clients: 15.000
=> mainly known because of awards and sharing of lessons learned
 The Problem of Crisis…

From: The Sun Also Rises (1926)

The Seneca Effect

The Seneca effect, or Seneca cliff or

Seneca collapse, is a
mathematical model proposed by
Ugo Bardi to describe situations where
a system's rate of decline is much
sharper than its earlier rate of
growth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_effect
“Less is More”

10 Rules of Viisi
10 Rules

1. No bosses, everybody a leader

2. No functions, no business cards, only one title “Viisionair”
3. No permission culture, but autonomy
4. No “top-down” decisions, only “horizontal” team decisions
5. No bonuses, no “bargaining”, only fix salaries
6. No performance reviews, only “peer to peer” feedback
7. No “HR” hiring, but hiring by the team itself
8. No handbooks, only one “Golden Rule”
9. No budgets, “beyond budgeting”
10. No secrecy, but “radical transparency”
“No Secrecy,
but
Radical
Transparancy”
 No Secrecy, but Radical Transparancy

Because of two years of Covid we were used to weekly remote townhalls

What changed?

Higher Rhythm, more detailed:

● Weekly Townhalls
● From Monthly metrics to weekly metrics
● Focus on Financial metrics: Weekly liquidity, revenue and costs
“No Bosses,
but
Everybody a Leader
(of its own Roles)”
Rotation Principle

What changed?

from:

“Rotation OVER Experience”

to:

“Experience OVER Rotation”

“Primus Inter Pares” (“First among Equals”)

“Rotation of Leadership”:

● Republican idea
● Polis Athens
● Merchant Cities (“Hansestädte”)
● Consultancy Firms and Investment
Banks
● Family owned businesses
● Switzerland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primus_inter_pares
Leadership Style: “War Time” versus “Peace Time”

“Peace Time” versus “War Time”,

Search for the extreme situations:
● Churchill: Good “War-Time” leader.
● Mission Command (von Moltke:
"Auftragstaktik versus Befehlstaktik”)
● Andy Grove (Intel): “Only The Paranoid
Survive”
https://a16z.com/2011/04/14/peacetime-ceo-wartime-ce
o/
“No HR Hiring,
but
by the Team itself”
No HR Hiring, but by the Team itself
Recruiting Principles/ Culture:
● Hiring by the team
● Every member of the team has a veto
● Fixed salaries
● Peer to peer feedback in the team on a daily basis

“Peace-time” Fluctuation (average 10%):

● Renewal of contracts: Would you start at Viisi again? / Would we hire you
again?
● Voluntary fluctuation (“I will be happier somewhere else”)
Who is responsible for offboarding in times of crisis?
“The Elephant in the Room”...

● By the Team itself: Keytoe.nl:

https://nos.nl/artikel/2260045-weggestemd-door-je-collega-s-bedrijf-experimenteert-met-ontslag

What did we do at Viisi?

1. “Last In, First Out” (in Age categories, Regulations by Dutch law):
https://business.gov.nl/regulation/collective-redundancies/
2. “Pay to Quit” (Zappos):
https://www.fastcompany.com/90708440/this-ceo-pays-new-employees-5000-to-quit
A Crisis is always also an opportunity

To show that…

Selforganisation does work,

and:

● Is more flexible, more agile…

● Is more transparent
● Is more honest
● Is more human
● …
Questions