Session 8

Holacracy
Promises a lean and adaptable organization, highly effective,
distributed authority and purpose driven work
Self-organization models typically share three
characteristics
• Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory
• Teams are the structure. Within them, individual “roles” are
collectively defined and assigned to accomplish the work.
• Teams design and govern themselves, while nested within a larger
structure.
• Leadership is contextual. It’s distributed among roles, not individuals,
and responsibilities shift according to fit and as the work changes.
The Case of Zappos
• Ideated by a team of 5 employees
• Form of self-management
• Confers decision power on team or circles
• Decided to stay, 18% took the package, with 6% citing holacracy
• Others liked- best use of talent
• Trend or mere experiment
Challenges
•?
• Difficult to coordinate efforts at scale
• What should be done, who should do it, and how people will be
rewarded is hard
• Reliability and
• Adaptability