Category Archives: Resources

Links of the Week (Week 45/2015)

LinksoftheWeek

Here are our Links of the Week, curated from our link collection.

Holacracy

Considering to change your organization model? This article points out some of the benefits of running on Holacracy and under which circumstances its adaption is most successful. Is Holacracy Right for You? Here Is What You Need to Know.
“So whether you decide to pursue Holacracy or not, you should take some time thinking about the issues that it brings to the fore and ask: If not Holacracy, then what?”
Voys and Devhouse Spindle have implemented Holacracy in the spring this year. In an interview the founder Mark Vletter gives a review of the process and how Holacracy changed his life. Six Month Holacracy.
“Getting people involved and making them understand how to become entrepreneurial. I feel that in the long run this is most crucial and difficult part.”

Consulting

A love declaration to the white board. The article counts the pros of using a white board and explains its role in consulting work: Consulting confession: I love the white board.

“It makes the experience creative, tactile, interactive, and open-ended. It’s a running joke with my teams that I will take any opportunity to pickup a dry-erase pen and head towards the whiteboard – like a moth to a night light.”
Tom Nixon offers an important clarification to Frederic Laloux book Reinventing Organisations. He emphasises the role of the founder of the organization despite the decentralized process in Holacracy or Sociocracy. The founder is the one who holds the space and provides the vision defining an existential value for the development and motivation of the people in the organization. Nixon develops his understanding of organisations further into an organic web of relations “and consider all of humanity as one interconnected ecosystem”. Resolving the awkward Paradox in Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organisations. 
“It organically grows what’s working, and rejects what isn’t. Yet there’s still one person holding the vision for the whole.”

Body & Mind

Some good tips for those sitting at their work: Pay back your movement debt. Your body will be thankful. How to Reverse the Damage of Sitting and Human Domestication.

Auf deutsch:

Über Ideale, Erwachsenwerden, Weltverbesserung und Pragmatismus. Mit einem Schuss Kant. Man fühlt sich besser, wenn man versucht die Welt zu verbessern.
“Nach einer verbreiteten Ansicht bedeutet erwachsen zu werden, dass man auf die eigenen Hoffnungen und Träume verzichtet und sich mit der Realität abfindet. Ich finde das nicht erwachsen, sondern trostlos.”

Links of the Week (Week 44/2015)

LinksoftheWeek

Here are our Links of the Week, with a special focus on Holacracy this time, curated from our link collection.

Holacracy

In Unlocking the Benefits of Self-Management Without Going All In on Holacracy, Mike Arauz, a Co-Founder of August, describes the lessons they have learned from Holacracy without relying on the system in their new company.

“While many of Holacracy’s underlying principles are incredibly valuable, it is possible to reap the benefits without formally adopting Holacracy.”

 

Ever wondered how to make the transition to a new organization model like Holacracy? In Holacracy at BSL: Moving Forward Denitsa Marinova shares her experience of a workshop with a Holacracy-trained coach as the first step.

“Upon reflection, I see how brilliant this is – Holacracy creates a work space where employees speak out of their functional roles and keep personal feelings at bay – a safe space which rules out power games altogether.”

 

Laura Groten adds a personal assessment to this Holacracy collection. In her article, she focuses on the benefits of Holacracy for her individual development:

“Working with Holacracy, I am empowered to make things better, participate in making decisions and improve my work environment.”

Auf deutsch:

In 10 Dinge, die ich gelernt habe, seitdem ich ein Team führe listet Juliane auf Kleinerdrei einige wichtige Erkenntnisse und Reflektionen über Führung und Teamarbeit auf – als Bonus untermalt mit 10 passenden Gifs. Ein wichtiger Ratschlag einer Freundin: „Never freak out before you have to freak out.”
“Was sie meinte, war: Hole dir alle Informationen, die du brauchst, bevor du glaubst, dass die Katastrophe eingetroffen ist. Spar deine Energie, solange du nicht weißt, ob du Grund zum Ausflippen hast.”

Links of the Week (Week 43/2015)

LinksoftheWeek

Here are our Links of the Week, curated from our link collection:

Consulting

Learning from the big fish in the pond: How storytelling improves consulting and makes it more fun. Consultants Mind analyses the Boston Consulting Group’s new website in Atlas of Strategy Traps. 

Software

As a multi-local team, Structure & Process is working successfully with Slack. In this article Cary Newfeldt explains why this is such a powerful tool, and gives an overview of Slack’s functions: Hello Slack, Goodbye Email.

Start-Ups

Senjeev Agrawal advises only to start a new company if you are truly obsessed with your idea. In the end, even the worst case scenario looks like a total win. Don’t Start a Company – Be Obsessed With Something.

Holacracy

Uschi shares her reflections on a recently given workshop at EvolvingOrganisation:
“Thanks to Holacracy I can now explain my approach: I work for purpose, not people.”

Auf deutsch:

Stefan Roock gibt eine illustrierte Einführung in Scrum und erklärt, wie diese IT-Methode als Denkmuster für ein agiles Innovationsmanagement angewendet werden kann.

Links of the Week (Week 42/2015)

LinksoftheWeek

Here are our Links of the Week, curated from our link collection:

Sales

Need help in building a viable sales pipeline? This post is inspired by climbing. Remember to have your pins (aka Livesavers) really safe and clear before you move on: Only a strong and clear “Yes” in your sales process is a safe “pin” to move forwards.

Technology

Tim O’Reilly about “Unicorns”, startups with a valuation of over one billion USD, and how technology transforms our daily life: We’ve Got This Whole Unicorn Thing All Wrong!

Work Habits

Derek Sivers shares some surprising insights about the thin line between stress and relaxation: Relax for the same result!

Customer Relations

How organisations separate themselves from their customers and why this is an issue for both of them: Gerry McGovern in “The customer is the meme.”
We need to move away from the old culture that sees technology almost wholly as a replacement for people and a reducer of human-to-human interactions.”

Holacracy

In the Harvard Business Review George Romme examines three common misconceptions about Holacracy. He also gives some background on the roots of Holacracy and Sociocracy: The Big Misconceptions Holding Holacracy Back.

Auf deutsch:

Gunter Dueck über “Volkswagening” und was genau das mit sogenannten “Score-Man”, die überall beste sein müssen, zu tun hat: Volkswagening / volkswagieren und Supramanie.

Links of the Week (Week 40/2015)

Links of the week, curated from our Tumble-Log:

Holacracy

Reflections on holacracy implementation by Alexis Gonzales-Black, formerly of Zappos

“If you look at the trajectory of where organizations are going, it arcs towards self-management, no matter what kind of business you’re in. I think businesses have to be free to scale up or scale back these different practices to meet the needs of the company.”

Change

8 symptoms of organization on the cusp of change

“In theory, organizations are meant to enable us — to make us faster, stronger and more effective than we’d be on our own. And yet today, in listening to my clients, it feels as if the exact opposite is true — as if the organization is actually getting in their way.”

Software

Basecamp 3: Work can wait

“I do believe toolmakers can build tools that help you draw a line between work and life.”

Corporates

Dear corporates: A quarter if a million of your workforce are escaping…

Digital Economics

Not firms but commons and market networks (Esko Kilpi)

Better conversations and leadership

The core imperative: training in practice (Chris Corrigan)

Auf deutsch:

Sieben Fehler, mit denen Chefs ihre besten Mitarbeiter vergraulen