Holaspirit and Target Teal’s Self-Management Meetup in São Paulo; Brazil vibrates to the rhythm of the teal frequencies (June 17th, 2019)
Our stop in Brazil was memorable! From the beach of Copacabana to the ultra-modern premises of Youse, via Corcovado, the rooftop of EduK or the co-working of Prove and the famous sugar loaf, we were surrounded by the best of the self-org community and the breathtaking landscapes of a country as beautiful as its friendly inhabitants. This strong ties of the Brazilian teal community has left its mark on us, by its diversity, assumed: theorists and practitioners of the O2 method promoted by the independents of Target Teal, a sociocratic development group (sociocracy, sociocracy3.0), certified and users of holacracy, and many other categories of experts!
On Monday evening (June 17th, 2019), we were at the heart of the Bradesco Inocabra Habitat open innovation center for our meeting on “Teal and self-managed organizations” co-organized with Target Teal, one of Holaspirit’s very first partners.
Davi Gabriel Da Silva introduced the debates with a keynote on the “Why” and the reasons to onboard on the path of an adaptive organization, soon relayed by Rodrigo Bastos his partner within Target Teal: “The evolutionary organizations movement is developing in Brazil and I think we have a great opportunity to show organizations that it is possible to work differently. The search for greater efficiency but probably even more the ability to adapt to an uncertain, complex context, to bring value to customers and society — with a positive impact — are the strong motivations. It is time to transform the managerial modes inherited from the second industrial revolution. Instead of static functions and positions, we advocate a shift to roles that are constantly adapting. Do do so, we need a social technology, a support like Holaspirit.”
In the process, Marco Baron’s personality left no one indifferent and his testimony on the EduK experience — an online course service to learn an activity and earn money — stimulated exchanges with different entrepreneurs but also managers in large groups, including several in the HR sector. The HR professions anticipate an unprecedented transformation and Marco did not underestimate it by explaining in an almost provocative way that the HR function had been widely distributed within EduK: “HR is an institution of the last two industrial revolutions and its representatives tend to predict and control things more than to free the structure of the organization”. He added: “When we started our transition to holacracy, our objective was of course an optimized business efficiency but with an ethical and empowering approach to human relations. In this sense, rather than a list of values, we have collectively defined principles of behaviour and established a feedback culture based in particular on a “ninja feedback” role and virtual credits to be distributed to peers.
Indeed, as Luis Rodrigues of Knowledge21 explains, “people are not looking for a new way to design the organization but a way to deal with their tensions: don’t focus on methodology but on solving problems through continuous improvement. It is the deep DNA of K21, very organic by nature, and the very meaning of agility: we absolutely want to preserve and develop this ability. This is much more important than the methodology or framework used”. Each person who comes to animate a role is a sensor. “We use Target Teal’s O2 methodology to do this, and solve problems, including those that have been regularly brought under the carpet. It generates a progressive and positive contagious phenomenon. The implementation of self-management within Knowledge21 has resulted in 1\ much more efficient decision-making, 2\ the fact that tensions have been brought out from under the carpet, 3\ the demonstration and understanding that scaling up without a boss is possible.
We concluded this beautiful and friendly meetup with the presentation of Holaspirit — and Talkspirit, which is at the origin of the project to develop the self-management platform — by Philippe Pinault, CEO of the two startups. Holaspirit’s purpose has been described: “the support platform for agile organizations via new managerial modes, new modes of collaboration” and the vision unveiled on the expected evolutions of the product beyond the basis of governance description and the type of methodology used. Indeed, Holaspirit’s ambition is to simplify the lives of its users in their daily actions by linking their roles and circle memberships to their project, HR or task management. The platform, which got a big traction right now, aims to become, in its new version — as from this summer — the universal support for all organizations on the path to agility and new governance, regardless of their context and maturity. Because holacracy does not meet all needs, far from it.
