Agile, Holacracy and the Future of Management
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My talk at #AgileIndia2014 on what are some of the key trends concerning workgroups and workplaces.
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Agile, Holacracy and the Future of Management
- 1. Agile, Management 3.0, Holacracy… …what next? Tathagat Varma, VP Strategic Process Innovations,
- 2. Let’s break something today! Agile Manifesto Agile Management 3.0 Holacracy Lattice #NoManager What next? …starting with some mental models…
- 3. Why were Pyramids built? To preserve the dead!
- 4. Why were Hierarchies built?
- 5. Taylor ‘s Prescription, 1911 “I can say, without the slightest hesita3on,' Taylor told a congressional commi9ee, 'that the science of handling pig-‐iron is so great that the man who is ... physically able to handle pig-‐iron and is sufficiently phlegma3c and stupid to choose this for his occupa3on is rarely able to comprehend the science of handling pig-‐iron.”
- 7. Can’t they a bit less hierarchical? …a bit more simple, functional and even a bit more beautiful?
- 8. World’s first (finest?) modern org chart… NY & Erie Railroad, 1855 PS: Who is at top / bottom?
- 10. …and then it got ugly
- 12. …real ugly!
- 15. Let’s start from the beginning… …of this century!
- 16. Agile Manifesto, 2001 “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” “The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.” Never talked about ‘structure’!
- 18. It was Scrum that killed the “Manager”! …though not the “management”
- 19. Traditional Manager – Authority = “Scrum Master”
- 20. So, who does the “management”? The “Team” Pic -‐ h#p://blogs.seapine.com/2012/02/agile-‐teams-‐self-‐organize-‐for-‐project-‐success/
- 21. Has that really happened? Maybe / Maybe Not! Hint: just search if companies claiming to be Scrum shops still hire old-style managers?
- 22. Management 3.0, c 2011 “I believe that Agile software development has overlooked the importance of (line) management. If managers don’t know what to do and what to expect in an Agile organization, how are they supposed to feel involved in a transition to Agile software development? What is the message of Agile here? If it’s just “we don’t need managers,” it’s no wonder Agile transitions are obstructed all over the world.(Page 27).” Management 1.0 = Hierarchies Management 2.0 = Fads Management 3.0 = Complexity
- 23. “Martie”
- 24. What does Management 3.0 mean? Energize People • People are the most important part of an organization and managers must do all they can to keep people active, creative and motivated Empower Teams • Teams can self-organize, and this requires empowerment, authorization and trust from the management Align Constraints • Self-organization can lead to anything, and therefore it’s necessary to protect people and shared resources and to give people a clear purpose and defined goals Develop Competence • Teams cannot achieve their goals if team members are not capable enough, and managers must therefore contribute to the development of competence Grow Structure • Many teams operate within the context of a complex organization, and thus it is important to consider the structure that enhance communication Improve Everything • People, teams and organizations need to improve continuously to defer failure for as long as possible
- 25. Holacracy® • Holacracy is a real-world-tested social technology for purposeful organization. • It radically changes – how an organization is structured, – how decisions are made, – and how power is distributed. • Is NOT Leaderless! • Focus is on work, not people!
- 26. How it changes with Holacracy? In Conventional Organizations Formal Structure “Requisite” Structure h#p://holacracy.org/blog/whats-‐wrong-‐with-‐your-‐organiza<onal-‐ Extant Structure With Holacracy
- 31. The Corporate LaJce – Cathleen Benko and Molly Anderson
- 32. #NoManager / Boss-free • Flat / Horizontal Organization, Delayering • No or very few levels of middle management • Promotes employee involvement – through decentralization and empowerment • Rotating Team Leaders – 37Signals, Valve • Open Allocation – Valve, GitHub Inc, Treehouse, • No Manager – The Morning Star Company, Gore
- 33. “Become leaders based on ability to gain the respect of peers and to attract followers.” “Relationships are everything at Gore” “Everyone at Gore has a Sponsor” • Team-based, Flat Lattice since 1958! • Revenue: $3B, Staff: 10,000 • No traditional org charts, no chain of command, nor predetermined channels of communication • “You will be responsible for managing your own workload and will be accountable to others on your team. More importantly, only you can make a commitment to do something (for example, a task, a project, or a new role)--but once you make a commitment, you will be expected to meet it. A "core commitment" is your primary area of concentration. You may take on additional commitments depending on your interests, the company's needs, and your availability.”
- 34. “We’ve been boss-free since 1996” Where Google boasts 20% free <me for its employees, Valve boasts 100% free <me. h#p://www.bbc.com/news/technology-‐24205497 • 400+ employees, $2B-4B revenue? • anarcho-syndicalism. Effectively, free association of employees with one another • Valve's basic approach to "managing without managers" is: – hire only incredibly self-motivated people – give them full autonomy to decide what project to work on – teach them to spot valuable projects, and to understand what value they can add to those projects – allow team structure to happen organically - teams self-select, leaders are chosen by their peers – encourage people to acknowledge and learn from mistakes quickly to move forward – make everyone responsible together for the success or failure of projects • and finally (and most critically): – determine the value and compensation of each employee by peer review
- 36. Founded: 1999, Calls its execu<ves ‘Monkeys’ Staff: 1500+, Revenues: $ 2.1B (2011) 2013 Nov: Embraced Holacracy 1-‐year project that will see 400 ‘circles’ in ‘holarchy’ h#p://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/a-‐company-‐without-‐job-‐<tles-‐will-‐s<ll-‐have-‐hierarchies/
- 37. Microsoft is changing… Satya Nadella CEO, Microsof “So how do you create that selforganizing capability to drive innovation and be focused? …To me, that is perhaps the big culture change — recognizing innovation and fostering its growth. It’s not going to come because of an org chart or the organizational boundaries. Most people have a very strong sense of organizational ownership, but I think what people have to own is an innovation agenda, and everything is shared in terms of the implementation.”
- 38. Why are they all changing? Hierarchies force standardiza<on and compliance – and kill employee mo/va/on which is big deal for any industry, any company today! Hierarchies create predictability – which is good in short-‐term, but resist change and kill innova/on which is bad in long-‐term Hierarchies are too slow for today’s fast-‐paced VUCA world, and the leaders must rely on 360 Degrees of Wisdom to steer their ship Hierarchies are too costly, especially when many young workers don’t like “adult supervision”, esp from people with an<quated skills Hierarchies create func<onal silos that impedes collabora/on and generates organiza/onal inefficiencies
- 39. Other forces… • Remote workers • Career progression • External networks
- 40. Working remotely is good for business!
- 45. The Corporate LaJce – Cathleen Benko and Molly Anderson
- 46. This is my network! How about yours?
- 47. Adult Supervision on-demand • Employees want to be left alone • But managers should be there when employees need them! Horses for courses • Networks for innovation, agility and speed • Hierarchy for efficiency, predictability and scale Distributed and Rotating leadership • Shared leadership and decisionmaking across the board • No permanency or carry-over of roles
- 48. References • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managerial_grid_model http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/romanarmy.html http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-on-microsofts-culture-2014-2 http://ryancarson.com/post/61562761297/no-managers-why-we-removed-bosses-at-treehouse http://99u.com/articles/22853/do-we-really-need-managers http://qz.com/161210/zappos-is-going-holacratic-no-job-titles-no-managers-no-hierarchy/ http://blogs.seapine.com/2012/02/agile-teams-self-organize-for-project-success/ http://www.management30.com/ http://www.slideshare.net/jurgenappelo/management-30-in-50-minutes http://holacracy.org/constitution https://medium.com/on-management/d9a3b82a5885 http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf http://www.gore.com/resources/corporate/en_xx/aboutus/culture/index.html https://www.quora.com/Asana/Since-Asana-doesnt-use-titles-how-is-the-organizational-structure-around-roles-and-responsibility http://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/nov/02/gore-tex-textiles-terri-kelly http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/a-company-without-job-titles-will-still-have-hierarchies/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/sungardas/2014/01/07/is-flat-better-zappos-ditches-hierarchy-to-improve-company-performance/ http://www.businessinsider.com/a-company-with-no-hierarchy-that-makes-more-money-per-employee-than-google-amazon-or-microsoft-2012-4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_organization http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110401/jason-fried-why-i-run-a-flat-company.html http://blogs.hbr.org/2011/05/two-structures-one-organizatio/ http://www.inc.com/samuel-wagreich/the-4-billion-company-with-no-bosses.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/12/agility-is-not-enough-beyond-the-manifesto/ http://beyondagile.com/ http://www.fastcolabs.com/3020181/open-company/inside-githubs-super-lean-management-strategy-and-how-it-drives-innovation http://www.fastcolabs.com/3020181/open-company/inside-githubs-super-lean-management-strategy-and-how-it-drives-innovation http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/11/hierarchy-is-overrated/ http://hbr.org/2011/12/first-lets-fire-all-the-managers/ar/1 http://hbr.org/1990/01/in-praise-of-hierarchy/ar/1 http://hbr.org/2003/03/why-hierarchies-thrive/ar/1