Holacracy why and where we are
I have been testing Holacracy with my team at Bravelab.io for 6 months. Companies are complex organisms. We gave ourselves the space to experiment.
Key takeaways
- Revenue grew 51x between 2015 and 2021 with an organic growth strategy.
- CEO as sole decision-maker became the top blocker to company growth.
- Full financial transparency for all employees was the most crucial cultural step.
- Holacracy manages roles, not people, enabling self-organized teams.
Are you Agile? How fast are you able to respond to the changes in VUCA World? Are you an entrepreneur? Have you tried to build a company from scratch? Are you an employee? Were you being strangled by a lack of with lack of purpose?
Is a hierarchical structure the only choice for your company?
Many systems allow us to organise our companies. However, most companies choose a default one: classic hierarchy. Let’s assume that you are CEO. First, you want to hire a mid-management level - the expert who will be managing other people. If you aim for this goal, you won’t have any daily issues to do. Only strategic ones. Really?
Now, let’s assume that you are an employee. You want to know what is your primary responsibility, what boundaries are. What is your role? Does your role involve what you want to do? What if some part of the company underperforms? Are you ready enough to switch yourself to another role? Are you willing to learn something new?
Does the flat structure work for the company?
Bravelab, the company I founded and was running at the time, is more than six years on the market. We’ve been growing organically. Between 2015-2021 we increased our revenue by ~51 times. We already have ~30 people on board. We started from - let’s say - a semi-flat structure. Everyone could talk with me, the CEO; everyone felt equal. That was the theory. Practically every single decision should have been made by me. It slows down a company. We tried to have mid-level management. Still, I was the central decision-making point - and the leading blocker of the company’s growth.
Attempt to develop our culture based on non-default options
Things have changed since I started to learn more about different business models (mainly in Business and IT Management AGH studies). So, I turned Bravelab into a full-transparent company. You can see rates, commissions, profits, and more as an employee. It was the most crucial step: attempt to develop our culture based on non-default options. I took what was the best from different company structures and systems and applied them at Bravelab.
Testing Holacracy as a new form off structure for companies
As a manager/founder/CEO, have you faced similar issues at your company? As an employee, do you see value in it?
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