Ludovic Cinquin from OCTO Technology, a pioneer in the transformation of the world of work?
Interview with Ludovic Cinquin, founder and director of OCTO Technology
OCTO Technology, an IT consulting and implementation firm, is definitely seen as a UFO in the French entrepreneurial landscape. Founded in 1998, its history and its development follow that of the Internet. We have to admit that almost 20 years later, OCTO Technology is still on the track, which is already a feat in itself. Pioneer of “agile delivery”, the company quickly distinguished itself from its competitors by its way of doing things, but also its cutting-edge technology culture. Its internal organization is perhaps one of today’s most successful examples in terms of applying the principles of sociocracy. Acquired in 2016 by the international behemoth Accenture, the development of the French law firm has been further accelerated. How do you explain this bold success, and the ability to organize teams in a radically new way despite a rapid rise in scale? With nearly 700 employees today, it is obvious that the history of OCTO Technology has a lot to teach us, in its successes as well as its mistakes.
Obviously, setting up a sociocratic functioning within OCTO Technology was a long and laborious road, which could not avoid serious doubts and real questioning. And it is probably even longer and more laborious for more “classical” organizations. In fact, OCTO’s teams and collaborators at the time they embarked on the transformations initiated by their firm, already had solid foundations, a set of practices, rituals and values favorable to these evolutions. Naturally, one can take into account the organization, and especially consider the resolutely flat decision making, on a day-to-day and local level, but also the importance given to autonomy, freedom of expression and delegation, all while avoiding getting the ego involved. All this culture has enabled the teams and management to negotiate these transformations in the best possible way, at the cost of tireless work. And the road has only just begun…
The history of OCTO Technology is above all that of an experimentation, permanent and unceasingly renewed. It starts with the realization that technology and digital transformation, OCTO’s core business, cannot be considered independently and above ground. Any digital transformation is above all a cultural transformation.
From an almost exclusively technical expertise, the firm has rapidly evolved towards a more comprehensive approach, particularly through methodologies such as agile. From there, it was only a step away from realizing that technology does have an impact on culture…
The first step of this long revolution dates back to 2004 when OCTO Technology recruited several people who were also members of the first agile community in France. Quickly the newcomers challenged internal habits, ways of doing things… A violent process, but in the end fruitful. A migration to agile followed, with consequences much more important than expected. By constantly experimenting and “playing agile”, without having much of a model to refer to or compare to, new daily gestures finally surfaced. The same gestures that by sheer force of repetition have become sedimentary in culture… As Ludovic Cinquin, founder and director of OCTO Technology, likes to say:
“You can’t change a culture, but you can change behaviors, and behaviors become the culture.”
The second revolution was probably even more painful. Engaged in a deep and uncertain transformation, OCTO Technology saw its turnover rise suddenly, almost 8 years ago, from 7% to 20%. This was a real blow for the firm, which was banking heavily on the training of its employees. But a hard blow that also allowed Ludovic Cinquin and his teams to question their model even more. The verdict? The had to push the transformations even further, notably by leaving more freedom and initiative to individuals. It is at this point that OCTO Technology begins its second major transformation:
The organization of teams on a model of “tribes” ranging from 4 to 30 members, self-organized and capable of deciding their fate, whether it is a question of subjects to invest in or missions to accept or refuse. A crazy gamble, but one that has also had an extremely strong cultural impact on the employees.
But as with all transformations and experiments, new limits quickly appeared and posed the need for new adaptations. It is no coincidence that Ludovic Cinquin often evokes “a journey towards sociocracy that is never completely finished,” a revolution that always brings new challenges. The one raised by the organization into “tribes”? In the space of just a few years, the excitement of the transformations of the internal organization had more or less disappeared, or had at least clearly receded in the teams. The number of employees who had lived the project in their flesh and blood from the beginning was inevitably decreasing. And with them the efficiency and power of this mode of organization. And that’s not all, the “tribal” model of organization was also beginning to show its limitations. This system was increasingly fragmenting the organization as the number of employees increased and made coordination difficult. An opportunity to launch the most recent, and still ongoing, transformation of the organization within OCTO Technology: the structuring of the tribes into larger groups and on the sociocratic operating model.
Today, the firm’s 700 or so employees form some 30 tribes, themselves grouped in 6 leagues that vary between 50 and 90 people. Each league then corresponds globally to a theme (Agile, cultural transformation, data science, AI etc.).
But how does one lead teams and tribes in these transformations? How to avoid the pitfall of a reorganization imagined and imposed from above? Once again, Ludovic Cinquin experiments, adjusts, and remains faithful to his values. After all, why not try to reorganize in an agile way? The general intention, to group the tribes into a sort of superior leagues governed by sociocracy, was initially proposed to all the collaborators so that they could formulate proposals and be fully involved in the possible transformations. The main idea of the approach was to maintain an inciting approach and to avoid, as much as possible, falling into authoritarianism. To gauge the extent of this gamble, it is important to remember that, at this very moment, sociocracy is still in its infancy in the entrepreneurial world. But nothing that could frighten the OCTO teams. Spontaneously, some employees have started to take an interest in it, digging into the subject, attending conferences etc. The teams saw their knowledge of the subject mature little by little until they saw the emergence of sketches of sociocratic functioning. It was therefore time for the management to set an example and apply the same principles.
Organization in a circle, double linkage, election of facilitators and secretaries: these were all measures that the steering committee adopted at the beginning of the year, remotely, during the confinement. It certainly takes a little longer to set up, but it works, according to Ludovic Cinquin. In his opinion, it will take another year or so for his teams to get the governance and organization model up and running and fully operational.
But the power of the culture at OCTO Technology is not just about these ways of organizing work within the firm. Many rituals have also been developed to make the experience of the collaborators unique and engaging. Like the “tribe” days: each month, the members of a team meet for a day, at the place they want, to do what they want… A way to let the teams perceive and determine the best way to build their collective, to become united. We could also mention the “brown bag lunches” which consist in giving carte blanche, every lunchtime, to those who wish to share with the rest of the teams on a subject that is close to their hearts. No subject is excluded and in practice, these self-managed training sessions can range from advanced image recognition to composting waste. Not forgetting, of course, the circle meetings that will gradually become an essential ritual with the establishment of sociocracy.
From there to imagine that Ludovic Cinquin and his teams have reached the end of their adventure? Far from it! As the founder and director of OCTO Technology himself admits, learning is permanent and continuous and it doesn’t seem to stop anytime soon! But it is also an interesting path as such, a foundation that could help build a new generation of companies. The stakes are worth the efforts.
This synthesis is the result of a collective and virtual “Thrive-In” session of The NextGen Enterprise held on June 23rd, 2020. You can find the recording in french here:
