To each his own holacracy
A common method, variable applications
A look back at the Holaspirit — Happywork meeting at the Hôtel de l’Industrie on July 4, 2019
Shared governance is a collective experience, which does not prevent everyone from living it in their own way, from seeing in it any advantage, lever of progress or defect. On the occasion of a meetup organized by Holaspirit and its partner Happywork (organization consulting) at the Hôtel de l’Industrie in Saint-Germain des Prés, four adventurers of holacracy delivered impressions and anecdotes under the talented guidance of Bastoun Talec, partner at Happywork.
Support and adapt
Alexis Nollet is co-founder of Ultérïa. An “Ecosystem that creates value for people and living things”. More concretely, it is the creation of a 10 hectare space near Auxerre, on which will be grouped a Montessori school, a training center, and a woodworking factory, Mobil Wood, which creates furniture for distribution.
“We are changing civilization, in a way not observed since the Renaissance”, hence the need to move away from the strict pyramid model that new generations will no longer tolerate.
Alexis Nollet and his partner Sébastien Becker naturally turned to holacracy, supervised by a consulting firm that focused a lot of work on the idea of trusting the process.. They have partially returned. For them, the process is about humans.
“Holacracy was conceived by a very cerebral man, Brian Robertson,” with whom Alexis Nollet trained. “The method is not easy to access for someone who is not specifically cerebral, who has the intelligence of the hands..” There are many around the founder of Ultérïa. “Holacracy works very well in offices, it requires some adaptations for production jobs”.
In fact, they are constantly trying out new rules, with the need to clarify the roles that are necessary for the company. “Roles and not people,” Alexis Nollet insists, “to avoid power games. A reflection that also makes it possible to identify talents, develop them, observe their adequacy with the defined roles, to adapt these roles to people, and not the other way around.
The two partners have also trained in coaching, because sharing governance is not something that happens on its own, you must guide everyone in their learning of autonomy, and not hesitate to put a manager back in place. It happened at the request of the teams, but finally what is really the problem? If we consider that manager is training, it is a talent and not an authority.
The tool must be adapted, not the people.
The definition of roles as an enhancement of each other
Carole Avril, General Delegate of the French Diabetic Federation, has chosen holacracy following an absence for health reasons. During these six weeks, she feared that a strategic project to which she was very committed would not be able to move forward. Noting on her return that everything had worked perfectly in her absence, she wondered about her position as General Manager: what was her added value, if her position was only legitimized by signing leave, expense reports or voting the budget? This legitimacy was all the more important because it was all the more important to justify the fact that the federation relies heavily on volunteers.
A reflection has been initiated and led to a governance in circles of the 19 employees of the headquarters, and should spread to the regions with 400 employees and 1000 volunteers.
Carole Avril found it particularly enriching to define roles and their purpose.
A person in charge of answering the telephone to patients, on social and legal issues? His purpose was to fight against discrimination against people with diabetes. This has given a new impetus to his activity. His action went beyond his person, beyond the federation itself.
This redefinition of roles is made for those who occupy them, but also for those who interact with them: it changes the way people look at them and reduces relational difficulties. This reflection also makes it possible to detect and eliminate overlapping roles, which generaly generate frustration and conflict.
Taking advantage of failures
Philippe Thirion, Director of Enedis Conseil & Action, a branch of the electricity distributor whose mission is to advise and mobilize temporarily available resources (as is always the case in a group of 36,000 employees) to use them until they are redeployed.
Following a so-called triage meeting, Philippe Thirion saw a person appointed to the rotating position of secretary who he considered unsuitable. He did not want to question the decision-making rules, as the consequences of this fixed-term appointment were not major. The person did not adapt well to this task, but he is pleased to have let it happen. First of all, in order not to destabilize something that is agreed between all, and secondly because everyone has apparently learned in this bad choice, by compensating for the failures of the secretary, and by understanding his role all the better. The next choice of the person for this position will be even better..
The principle is to be in continuous improvement. According to Philippe Thirion, it is a great strength of the holacratic model to have this ability to question while ensuring convergence with the raison d’être.
As the lead link in his circle, he is in touch with the “outside world”, with classic managerial organizations that govern a galaxy of 36,000 people. This inevitably generates frustration, but also poses challenges. The need for organizational renewal is making its way into the sprawling group. Its CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy recently announced that he wants to reduce the hierarchical strata to 5 or 6… Currently, it is difficult to count them.
Semantics is important
Yan Laurent is Managing Director of Novotel Paris Cœur d’Orly (Accor Group), which opened its doors in the fall of 2017. He chose disruptive management to manage the 163 rooms, after 20 years of frustration and conflict in various institutions. It was his previous position that triggered it. 90% of the staff were unionized and he came to the conclusion that the boss was not him, but the team leaders who were able to stop the activity..
The hierarchy didn’t make sense.
There are 7 to 12 hierarchical layers in a classic hotel, 3 at the Novotel Cœur d’Orly.
Among other things, he carried out semantic work on the definition of roles, not only for semantics itself, but also to redefine the functionality of workstations. Removal of chefs or chief receptionists: expert in hotel organization and optimization (his assistant), taste buds agitator (in kitchens), sleep preparers (formerly chambermaids) or divergent.. The divergent, being a person who does not belong to any specific hotel profession.
A new name that also proposes a redefinition of the role, and which in itself includes the raison d’être of this role. An initiative that is obviously not enough but promotes the implementation of self-organization, that of sleep preparers not example. This generates a pleasure at work that is self-sustaining, with the sole objective of customer satisfaction. A new nomenclature that also proposes a redefinition of the role, and which in itself includes the raison d’être of this role.
This initiative, by its rewarding and empowering nature, encourages the establishment of self-organization, that of sleep preparers by example, who are autonomous and more fulfilled, where the profession of chambermaid is considered hard and thankless.
This redefinition of roles has also resulted in the disappearance of the traditional reception desk: equipped with touch pads, all staff members are authorized to greet travellers. Fluidity and speed for a service that gives the impression of “just like home”.
A form of egalitarianism that gives pleasure to work that is self-sustaining through the efficiency it generates. It is felt by users and nourishes the hotel’s raison d’être: “to enhance the customer and employee experience, in all symmetry of care”.
As far as performance is concerned, it is there: “In 2018, we made almost a million euros more than the budget planned, out of a hotel with 163 rooms, which is exceptional,” observes Yan Laurent, the hotel’s director. The institution has made the choice not to practice a number policy, but is not dissatisfied with this one.
Philippe Pinault closed the evening by thanking Holaspirit’s customers’ testimonies and gave an update on the company’s growth and the evolution of the software platform that is about to support all adaptive governance by roles and circles (holacratia of course, but also sociocracy, sociocracy 3.0, etc..).
He was able to answer a series of questions concerning the different phases of adoption of these distributed governance: enrolment, growth, adaptation, hybrid approaches, etc…
