Holacracy: it either fires you up or winds you up! Reflections on our recent Holacracy Introductory Workshop
This post is written by Uschi, and inspired by the Holacracy Introductory Workshop that we ran on the 8th September 2015 at Islington Ecology Centre. It was originally posted on the Evolving Organisation website.
Three months after experiencing Holacracy in an Introductory Workshop for the first time myself, it was my turn to welcome a group of 18 first-time experiencers of this radical new model of organising.
To set the scene for just how much I was looking forward to the moment of the attendees coming through the doors, let me be blunt about the impact the workshop had on me: Earth-shattering! Life-changing! Kind of like having an instant teenage crush and going through every concert since and frantically following every bit of news there is on it. (A bit annoying actually, at times.)
Earth-shattering! Life-changing!
Thankfully? not everyone in the May workshop experienced this extreme reaction and it left most people curious rather than head-over-heels. But what I sensed amongst the group was an incredible bond, trust and feeling at ease with each other despite exploring something new and strange together. In the opening, closing and feedback rounds I remember feeling warm and welcome when speaking and when listening, deeply and calmly. There was a wonderful energy in the room. I also loved the combination of cutting edge and highly sophisticated content, top notch facilitation, clock-work like unfolding of the day, yet the complete absence of stiff corporate feel, from the venue with natural light & air, with even a tree in the middle, to the organic catering, and seeing EO members bringing in biscuits, sharing the tasks. Being self-funded, I really felt that I was getting my money’s worth plus more but that I wasn’t spending it on meeting extravaganza.
Fast-forward 3 months I was now taking part in the role as Event Experience in Evolving Organisation. My role was to keep an eye on the smooth running of the day and share my own reflections when appropriate, but my role was not to sell! Holacracy sells itself — or it doesn’t. I am finding that it either fires you up or winds you up! The workshop offers the opportunity to find out.
Seed for new perspectives, potentials + systems for change
Amongst the attendees on the 8th September who ranged from corporate to self-employed across a variety of sectors, I definitely sensed the whole range of reactions a first encounter with Holacracy provokes. From love at first try to running a mile! And the in-betweeners who mentally dismantled it to identify suitable parts for them. It certainly doesn’t seem to leave people indifferent. But just like in May, trying out something new seems to attract and connect something we all have in common and provides an instant networking buzz, and the animated, inspired conversations made a beautiful background music during the breaks.
But let’s get to the gist of it. After introductions, Workshop Facilitator Nick Osborne stepped us through the rationale of the emergence of this new system and then explained the key elements of Holacracy. When questions arose about what these meant day-to-day, the four EO members who attended the workshop all chipped in.
We then got to the core of what the workshop offers: an insight into the power of nurturing and shaping an organisation — via a meeting! It’s done in two role plays where people have the chance to either take part or observe how two key Holacracy meetings, tactical and governance, run and govern the organisation.
Opened my eyes to a whole new (liberating) structure
I think it’s fair to say that the meeting simulations are a shock to the system, and there seems no way around that. They demonstrate the way in which change is seen through from someone’s idea or issue to making it happen. All in a meeting. For that to happen without stalling and diversion, it’s done via a really, really rigid process.
And I mean rigid. There is a kind of querying system to ensure everyone gets a turn and is listened to — if it’s relevant to what the queue is lining up for. (But also, anyone can form a new queue!) At first this feels cold and brutal compared to what we’re used to. ‘Perplexed’ and ‘stunned’ is how some attendees described their state after the meeting simulations.
It is thanks to this strict process though that the organisation is continuously being shaped for better serving its purpose by enabling every single employee to contribute what they feel needs doing in order to achieve this, called a ‘tension’ in Holacracy.
From my experience of Holacracy meetings in EO I can report back that they felt unnatural at first but the lack of chit chat and superficial exchanges was immediately replaced by alertness and deep listening which are fundamental but also natural requisites for taking part. And even more beautifully so, judgments of each other are replaced by observation — and appreciation. Because the process takes care of us as a whole, it creates a space where we no longer have to judge and compete with each other and where we can purely observe and choose to let pass or delight. There simply seems no room to foster and frustrate. It makes such an inspiring and harmonious co-working. The meetings also shine a bright light on our own subjectivity and how it can serve the whole, and when it doesn’t. They give us a compass towards what our purpose needs from us as a group. They are incredibly rich and deep experiences and I would never wish them to be different.
Is Holacracy strictly ‘love it or hate it’ or can it be an acquired taste? One reason it resonated with me straight away is that it I felt the same powerful transformational impact on a collective level that I feel when practicing yoga on an individual level: It is a method to transcend conditioned behaviour. Paradoxically though, when that happens it actually becomes more than a method. It becomes a way of life.
Holacracy is helping me realise transformation as part of a collective even in a traditional organisation where I still work. I am learning to align myself to purpose, not people. I am gradually shifting from being restricted by a line management hierarchy to being more creative in finding channels of working towards the purpose of my company. I’m coming to realise that by doing this I am transcending the current system without resisting it. And thanks to our value approach in EO, I am also seeing and using additional values that I’d taken for granted before. I was working independently in the traditional system before but not as consciously and certainly not explicitly. Thanks to Holacracy I can now explain my approach: I work for purpose, not people.
Holacracy is teaching more than a new way of organising; it is a new way of thinking.
The workshop may spark a shift, and there’s only one way to find out!
Originally published at www.evolvingorganisation.com on October 9, 2015.
