[teampractices] Long Read on "self-organization" at Zappos

[Adam Wight]

Thanks, I'd be interested to hear the perspective from the insiders, too,
I'll forward if I find anything.

The Forbes article is quite dishonest reporting, as much as I agree with
the sentiment behind it. 18% turnover seems low considering the 3+ month
severance deal they offered everyone, and there is no comparison to the
turnover prior to their structural changes.

Another enormous hole is the assumption that everything at zappos is still
decided in a top down way. I think that's unlikely to be the case, and
anyway it would require interviews or other real data to make that claim.

Looking forward to learning more!

Adam
On Jan 18, 2016 12:35 PM, "Grace Gellerman" <ggellerman at wikimedia.org>
wrote:

> Follow up:
>
>
> http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/01/18/whats-causing-zappos-to-hemorrhage-talent/#443ea49435d931be6f2b35d9
>
> On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 3:18 PM, Max Binder <mbinder at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
>> Late to the party, but this stuck out to me as familiar:
>>
>> old-fashioned management hierarchies stifle innovation, because they
>>> naturally generate informal rules and cliques of powerful insiders, which
>>> is inefficient and demoralizing, so a new and better system would be
>>> founded on clear, transparent rules. Even better, the rules should be
>>> flexible and adaptable, so governance procedures should be incorporated
>>> into the system.
>>
>>
>> when everyone knows the drill it eliminates much of the time-wasting
>>> verbosity and psychological microdrama that often turns workdays into an
>>> endless series of unproductive jaw-sessions.
>>
>>
>> There's also a lot that makes the Zappos approach seem dogmatic, but it's
>> hard to quote. Good read.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 3:05 PM, Arthur Richards <arichards at wikimedia.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> While the article doesn't mention Holocracy, it DOES mention Holacracy.
>>> I should have skimmed closer rather than just searching the article with
>>> command+f for a misspelled word :p
>>>
>>> On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 2:58 PM, Arthur Richards <arichards at wikimedia.org
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>> Oh, and of course: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holacracy
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 2:57 PM, Arthur Richards <
>>>> arichards at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I haven't read the article yet but did notice they don't mention
>>>>> Holocracy in it. If you're not familiar with it, Holocracy is a a 'complete
>>>>> system for self-organization' - it's an organizational system that tries to
>>>>> apply agile principles at an organizational and management scale.
>>>>> Interesting stuff - Zappos is probably the most well known org that uses
>>>>> Holocracy. Read more:
>>>>> http://www.zapposinsights.com/about/holacracy
>>>>>
>>>>> https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/holacracy-and-the-search-for-agile-organization
>>>>> http://www.holacracy.org/
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 2:47 PM, Grace Gellerman <
>>>>> ggellerman at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I think that groups self-organize rather than individuals, but
>>>>>> there's some truth is stranger than fiction material in here:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122965/can-billion-dollar-corporation-zappos-be-self-organized
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Arthur Richards
>>>>> Team Practices Manager
>>>>> [[User:Awjrichards]]
>>>>> IRC: awjr
>>>>> +1-415-839-6885 x6687
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Arthur Richards
>>>> Team Practices Manager
>>>> [[User:Awjrichards]]
>>>> IRC: awjr
>>>> +1-415-839-6885 x6687
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Arthur Richards
>>> Team Practices Manager
>>> [[User:Awjrichards]]
>>> IRC: awjr
>>> +1-415-839-6885 x6687
>>>
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>>>
>>
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