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

[Dan Duvall]

As speculative as the reporting might be, I do think they're on point with
the irony: "It's beyond ironic that Zappos wants its employees to get
excited about losing hierarchy in the operation when the hierarchical
structure is exactly what allowed the leadership to force 'Holacracy' into
place."

Yet to call this a failure of self-direction would be a failure to see
beyond the superficial marketing (and reductively prescriptive nature) of
Holacracy. It's a bit like saying that Stalin's Five Year Plans were
failures of socialism when there was not a kernel of socialism left in the
Soviet Union by that point—or ever, really, thanks to the Bolsheviks who
had utter contempt for "the masses".


On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 12:56 PM, Adam Wight <awight at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> 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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>>>>>>> teampractices at lists.wikimedia.org
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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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-- 
Dan Duvall
Software Engineer
Wikimedia Foundation <http://wikimediafoundation.org>
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