Holacracy: a New Technology that Reinvents Management

Holacracy is a radically different way of designing and experiencing business governance. In this organizational system, decision-making power is given back to employees, who are responsible for doing what it takes to move the company where it needs to go. Gone is the hierarchical organization where instructions are cascaded down the chain of command to be ultimately imposed on executors. The principle is that individuals are responsible for their scope of work and for organizing themselves to this end. The coordination and distribution of roles and tasks are performed continuously, based on employee proposals at three kinds of meetings: strategic, governance and operational. This operating model aims to make the company more agile, since obstacles to the effective execution of assignments, as well as necessary changes, are handled continuously in the natural course of the work. The structure thus evolves as needed, without requiring reorganizations in fits and starts.

This book provides an understanding of the philosophy underlying this approach, and the comic strip format makes for a quick read. The sometimes caricatured presentation of the shortcomings of traditional organizations and the self-promotion of the book’s publishing house are a bit regrettable, but it has the merit of introducing another type of management in an entertaining manner.