Holacracy community is on the rise, and we need it too!

Continuous learning process creates need for knowledge transfer between Holacracy adopters

The number of organizations showing interest in Holacracy is growing rapidly. Thanks to inspiring cases like the Holacracy implementation at Zappos in the US, more and more people all over the world get to know the method for organizing a company. Now that more entrepreneurs learn about Holacracy from a theoretical perspective, the need grows to learn about the practical application of it. Last month, this interest clearly emerged during the very first Holacracy Meetup in Amsterdam, organized at Springest, one of the first European companies that adopted the method.

The Meetup took place in the context of the Holacracy workshops and trainings that were held by HolacracyOne from March 21 until March 28 in Amsterdam. About 100 Holacracy enthusiasts and pioneers from the Netherlands and other European countries, like Austria and the Nordics, participated in the sessions. During the meetup attendees could meet and mingle and experience firsthand how the method really works on the inside.

The benefits of learning from companies that already work with Holacracy became evident. It was interesting to find which parts of the concept needed more explanation and clarification and to witness how valuable the exchange of knowledge and experiences amongst adopters was perceived.

Here are some of the thoughts and learnings that I would like to pinpoint:

Holacracy is a work in progress

The Holacracy movement has only just begun. And not only the pioneers are discovering more easy ways to practice the organizational method along the way. In Amsterdam, Brian Robertson talked about his discovery of the concept. He explained how all people working with it — including himself — are currently on a learning and development journey to reach to the most agile, efficient and effective way to organize their business. He stressed that Holacracy was not so much something he created, but more something he had discovered, being the most natural way to organize.

The referral to the book ‘What technology wants’ was made, with Holacracy being part of the evolutionary journey: it is such a natural way to organize, that it had to be discovered at some point in evolution. Just like the Internet, according to the writer Kevin Kelly. It serves people so well, it makes so much sense, that the discovery was inevitable. The method should not be envisioned as one person’s ideas projected on others, but as the most natural way to structure things. There was no creation, but a discovery to an exquisite way to organize and this discovery is an ongoing process.

The importance of sharing learnings

During the meetup it emerged how valuable the exchange of ideas amongst the early adopters is. As founder of Springest I shared some of my experiences with the implementation of Holacracy. I explained which phases and stages we had been through thus far, where we are at now and where we expect to go with Holacracy. Our team members demonstrated to a group of interested meetup participants how we actually work with Holacracy. There were many attendees interested to hear about the practical side of the implementation from a company that practices Holacracy.

Building the structure together

We consider the process of learning together as an organization to be very powerful: you build the structure together. Learning is such a big part of the process, that exchanging knowledge and experiences with other companies too, seems the only logical way to go about it. Diederick Janse from Energized.org, the first coach to help companies work with Holacracy in The Netherlands, agreed with the idea that sharing learnings is very important at this stage. It is all about figuring out what the best ways are to ‘go at it’ in an organization. It is an experiment, in which we discover the best way to get things done.

All attending pioneers, expressed it would be great to organize more similar meetings. We are looking forward to welcome more adopters, supporters and explorers to the Holacracy Meetup Group and aim to organize new meetups shortly. We welcome all suggestions and ideas for future events — everywhere in the world — and obviously thank all participants for being there and making the first Amsterdam meetup such a great start!