What Is Holacracy and Why Does It Work for Zappos?

Written By: Erica Fleming

In 2013 Zappos claimed about its intention about developing holacracy – a corporate structure without management.

The company made this decision hoping to increase the uniqueness of ideas and the enthusiasm of workers. They wanted to abolish all the barriers and to make the interactions stronger. The term holacracy was not developed by Zappos. It is actually a movement that is supposed to reshape the corporate country. It could be explained by the word “self-organization,” the condition when you don’t have to wait for a boss to command you but are immediately involved in the projects.

Zappos had a course for several years that helped to radically change the traditional system of the company and excluded the principle of bosses. Currently, all the departments are functioning as circles of people that are working reaching the same goals . No hierarchy is now presented in the company, and this moved the focus from the posts and titles to the real aims and the ways of achieving success.

When holacracy comes, lots of responsibility is laid on the employees. They were given a chance to make the structural changes themselves in order to help the business to develop. Their task is to define their own roles in the team. For someone, it could sound difficult and exhausted to define his everyday role. However, the good sides of this change are obvious, and they could be visible in better communication and interaction between the teams. The positive consequence is also the fact that employees now feel the stronger connection with the company and are really interested and involved in what they are doing.

This is the secret of success: employees are engaged in their work and are interested in the company progress. They do their work not mechanically following other’s orders but taking an active part in the organization’s life and sincerely wanting to see the growth of the company they are working in. They have a chance to find themselves and realize the talent they have. Holacracy gives the workers a good chance to fully show their skills, trying themselves in different roles and making clear what is the best suitable for them. It is also a great opportunity to receive new skills by actively communicating with others. The worker does not need to stay in one position for a long time and has the wide opportunities to move from one role to another developing his own skills and making himself more interested in the job. This way makes the life of employees more interesting as they constantly see the reasons for developing and do not have to get bored working in the same position for years.

Holacracy is an excellent choice for such organization as Zappos as it considerably makes its teams more organized and active in looking for the right people that could help with huge projects. The teams have a chance to find some people from outside by using the Role Marketplace. The Role Marketplace is a job board that contains particular tasks that are needed to be completed for the department with a percentage of time that would be taken out of an employee’s schedule. The team can create a task, estimate the percentage of the time, state requirements and placed it on the Role Marketplace waiting for someone who is perfectly suitable to come across and decided to do this job. It is much easier to find the proper person in this way rather than hiring in a traditional way that requires a long list of testing and preparing that waste much valuable time.

People receive the opportunity to develop themselves wider not only in the circle of their primary job. You may find something that you are extremely fond of and do this along with your current work. It is similar if someone is studying at a college, taking the classes that are connected with his specializing and fill his free time by taking a few classes that do not refer to his future profession but of which he is really fond of. Employees in the team are earning badges that later help other teams to define what roles could the specific person complete. Every task that is placed on the Role Marketplace marks the exact qualification that allows the person to take this task and complete the work.

The badges that are given to the people who have completed the particular role are equal to the skills. You are able to take a particular job, fulfill all the requirements that are stated and earn badges in this way. The badges will give you a chance to find your perfect position easier and establish yourself. They also help others to understand and believe that you are perfectly skilled for the required job. You can prove your qualification by taking a new job and filling a new role in the company.

My name is Erica Fleming. I support the effective adoption of new technologies or ways of working within writing by communicating complex information in an informative and inspiring way. My works you can at freebooksummary . I’m fond of writing articles for students, helping with essays.