The Journey of Disruption
How to prevent complacency in your organization
I had the opportunity to sit down with Nils Tißen and Nils Bogdahn to discuss how Me & Company thrives through constant disruption of their team structures. And to hear more about their own unique tweak of Holacracy, what they call “MeCracy”. At Me & Company they believe the changing nature of their culture allows them to maintain a fluid business model. They use what they learn operating in this constant evolving work environment to help their clients to implement agile organizational structures, and new more fluid work processes.
“We believe in what we do. We start with ourselves and then go out and help others to follow that mission.”
Founded in 2012 and based in Dusseldorf, Germany, Me & Company’s focus is growth and success through embracing change. The firm works in business innovation and in the growing area of reinventing work. Their clients are based all over Germany and range in size from large corporations to smaller, local companies. Me & Company has a staff of 15 and works with their clients through transformation processes to help them establish a shift in mindset towards agile.
Holacracy with a Twist
In 2016 the company began work in an organizational model founded on Holacracy. However, they recognized that the traditional model did not necessarily fit their specific needs. As such, they over time tweaked the Holacracy starting point and created their own version which they have coined MeCracy. Within this framework the company promotes the idea that all team members are leaders and peers. The notion of roles are central and have replaced traditional job descriptions and titles. The structure of the organization is fluid and based on the current needs of the business. As example Nils Tißen’s role is Company Designer and Nils Bogdahn’s main roles are Agile Coach and Service designer.
“At a higher level — the focus of the roles that you work within should be the things you love to do, combined with what we need to do for the business, and the need for a special role for projects — all of that comes together.”
The decision to transform the Holacracy model came from the desire to enable the fluidity within their organization’s structure. They felt that the standard framework of Holacracy was sometimes a little theoretical and complicated. In addition, even though they had chosen to follow the Holacracy model, they didn’t want to get stuck. They wanted to craft the model to fit the needs of the business — not accept the method just for the method’s sake.
Me & Company’s version of holacracy does not stray far away from original holacracy, there are just a few tweaks. In MeCracy they don’t work with sub-holon hierarchies as they don’t want to be too structural rigid and replace old business hierarchies with new holon hierarchies. Because of the size of the organization double-linking also isn’t needed and they wanted to be more effective and they trust colleagues to not be political, but to be neutral and able to be a link on both sides when needed.
“These changes are our own tweaks to the framework and embrace what we have learned on our journey.“
There are four key elements to MeCracy: 1) To have the knowledge required, 2) To have responsibility for the task, 3) Having the right people to work on the task with, and 4) Having clarity on what decisions you are empowered to make.
Roles
Nils and Nils emphasized having an agile role structure within the company so there is not a single role that is “impersonated” with each of the team members. Just as the company evolves, so do the roles of everyone in the company. The criteria for filling a role is to have the curiosity to learn and discover the skills, knowledge for the role, and being able to step in and fill the need in a way that provides value for the team, the project and the client.
This model allows for employees to switch roles when they have the competency to do so. And it encourages employees to be lifelong learners as they are partnered with a mentor, or “co-pilot” as they called it at Me & Company, who will help guide them as they learn the new work. It’s okay to stumble in the process, that’s not seen as a failure. If things do not work out, it is fully accepted because it provides the opportunity to learn what works and what does not. It’s valuable knowledge to learn from and sometimes shared with clients.
“We share success stories with our clients, but we also share stories where we failed and what we learned from it. That is important because we keep learning ourselves and can share those learnings with our partners.”
Holon drafting
Nils and Nils put an emphasis on how very central disruption is for their company culture. Perhaps the best way to describe the constant change within Me & Company is to look at their Holon drafting.
Every six months the existing team (within Holacracy teams are called holons) are destroyed. Folks discuss what they have completed compared to the goals set for the past time period. They evaluate the team and determine if they still have the roles that are needed in order to achieve the goals, or if they need to bring in new roles or people. So every six months all the people working at Me & Company are forced to rebuild the holons based on the current needs of the company.
They utilize a drafting system similar to that of the NBA. If new competencies or roles are needed, they can draft team members from other holons or hire new people to the organization. If more holons need a role than there are currently holders of that role on the team, a prior, joint prioritization of all holons decides in which holon that role can deliver the most value.
Work Hacks
As part of the daily operation Me & Company utilize specific methods that they call work hacks. These include:
- Pairing — Two persons work on the same task at the same time, in order to learn from each other. This helps to ease the learning/transition of new work. New team members are not alone on a project. Colleagues work together and a new employee will not take ownership at first, instead they are just introduced to the MeCracy model and work methods. After a few months they will take ownership of a small project.
- Peer feedback — Me & Company doesn’t do 360 feedback because there is no management, instead they use a big canvas and post-it notes that are put on the canvas by peers — what went well or not well in the last 6 months. Every team member decides which two fellow members he/she wants to get feedback from — depending on who he or she has worked with and expects the most valuable feedback from. Every feedback session is moderated by another team member who acts as a coach.
- Peer recruiting — There isn’t any HR function for interviews. A peer recruiter method is used for hiring and interviewing.
- Design thinking — The team works visually and fluid — everything is on wheels….everyday can be rearranged in a new way as is needed for the work that day. Utilizing visual design and easy mobility to ensure a better understanding of each other and where ideas are coming from.
“When new people start here I tell them to see this as a playground and to try new things and learn. Obviously there is work pressure, but we try to keep that away as much as possible so that they can learn the new methods, clients, and attitude of work here.” — Nils Tißen
Is MeCracy for everyone? And what does the future hold?
“No, it is not for everyone because everyone is different. This model is highly transparent, and a little pushy on the factor of learning. Also if you want an executive to oversee things — and give feedback, then MeCracy is not the right thing for you.”
In Nils Tißen’s experience some workers are distracted by not having a manager and find it difficult to have a team to provide feedback. They are insecure and uncomfortable. Traditional structures can be comforting for some because people have a better understanding of who the guide is and who is giving feedback. In addition, it is challenging to have the entire responsibility. It is difficult to be a constant learner and to be able to organize yourself and be responsible for your work without having others to report to.
And on the question of where the future is taken Me & Company the company’s growth is front of mind. The company is looking to eventually expand to additional cities in Germany but will most likely utilize a different model than Holacracy to enable that expansion. They recognize that Holacracy isn’t necessarily the model that will allow for successful growth in new remote locations — the future will tell.
Nils Tißen is expressing his passion for smaller autonomous units. The Buurtzorg model as it’s practiced in community nursing teams in the Netherlands is mentioned as a source of inspiration. In the Buurtzorg model self-managed teams of a maximum of 12 team members are fully self-steering. The teams themselves decide how they organise the work, share responsibilities and make decisions. All teams are rooted in the Buurtzorg onion model where the self-managed client who needs care is in the center. When a team grows bigger than 12 members the team divides and the new team can service a new community area. This vision of expansion by dividing cells could be a model for Me & Company’s growth in new cities.
Want to evolve your organization? Where to start?
The Nils duo advise folks to start with these three steps:
- Start with new feedback methods because the barrier is not that high.
- Start with team guidance sessions like retrospectives — start giving feedback on collaboration. Locate where there is blockage and improve how interactions are developed and find potential efficiencies. This all helps to start creating the necessary mindshift.
- Start with Why instead of What — your team, your organization should have a strong purpose. And find the methods that will help the team to succeed.
“We tell our clients that you don’t just go choose three elements of the agile method and then you are on your way. And you are never done, you have to keep evolving.”
At Me & Company they look forward to continuing their disruptions as they journey to evolve and change. And they are always open to using the best practices to meet their needs and to tweak as they are learning.
Curious — read previous LEAP Lab post on the 100% remote Convert.com and their implementation of Holacracy.
