Links of the Week (Week 44/2015)

Resources, Tools and Methods

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.”

Not having to worry about expectations…

Holacracy, Teamwork, , , ,

… is one of the aspects I enjoy most, being part of a team that runs on Holacracy.

you don’t have to worry about the implicit expectations or “shoulds” of others; instead, you can just show up, be yourself, and do your best within your roles, trusting that the process will catch and integrate any tensions that result. (Brian Robertson)

It is not necessary to worry about

  • what others will think or feel about my work
  • wether it will be “enough”
  • what others may think or feel about my process
  • if I should have done things differently.

Or so is the theory.

In practise, I still stress out a lot over being “a good leader”, a good steward of the team, a good Lead Link of our Holacracy Circles.

I try my best. I work in the best way I can and let the rest flow through the Holacracy process: it allows and encourages anyone to come up with anything that could be improved (from that person’s perspective). It can then be processed constructively together and codified in our governance records, the standards by which we work together (more on how our company is set up here).

Our conversations are mostly impersonal: they are usually about the work, not about the specific way in which a person is doing their work. The conversations happen between role holders for the benefit of the organisation. It is about how the work should be done, not about how I am or have been doing the work.

Except when it actually is about personal performance: When a person is clearly not doing their job according to the agreed-on principles, our process also shows it very clearly and opens up a conversation about what can be done (should the job be reassigned to someone else? Does the person holding the role need more support?). This makes the conversation about changing the person’s job or reassigning their roles much easier than if it were mixed up with a conversation about the structure of the work.

Having said all that, we do run into personal conflicts too. I hope that people will speak up, and address me personally when I messed up, or that they process it through Holacracy, so that we can all learn collectively, and build structure that may prevent future conflicts.

Links of the Week (Week 43/2015)

Resources, , , , ,

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.

Partner Meetings at Structure & Process

Structure & Process, Teamwork, , , ,

The Team at Structure & Process works from multiple locations. And while our online infrastructure (based on Slack and Trello) is great, from time to time we need to get together to figure things out in person, have some fun, and work on current projects in just one place. We call these gatherings Partner Meetings.

What are the defining characteristics of our Partner Meetings?

  • We have an Agile Agenda: Everyone can add items at any time, and we decide together in which order the items are processed.
  • The meeting has a facilitator. They are elected in the beginning and help the team to navigate through all agenda items.
  • There are scheduled unscheduled times during partner meetings: These allow space for personal exchange and fun together.
  • We work a lot. In those 2-4 days everybody focuses on Structure & Process work intensely, we dive into passionate collaboration.
  • During the meeting there is good food. Whether it is self-made or our favourite Asian food (when we meet in Düsseldorf), it is always delicious. We take ample time for lunch and other breaks.
  • Guests are invited. Besides the Team of Structure & Process, we usually have at least one guest at Partner Meetings: these can be external collaboration partners or candidates who are in the process of deciding whether to join us.
  • The Pile of Success collects all our processed agenda cards – a tangible symbol of our accomplishments in the meeting. We burn the pile ritually to celebrate our successful meeting at the end.

Here are some impressions of our last Partner Meeting in Düsseldorf in September.

Continue reading Partner Meetings at Structure & Process →

Links of the Week (Week 42/2015)

Resources,

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.

Use your hands!

Communication, Tools and Methods, , , ,

Handsigns for Meetings

SPblog-handsigns

Have you ever attended a local party meeting? People get off-topic a lot. People argue louder and louder while one person repeats their point for a third time. You have a correction to some recently shared information, but there are 5 people ahead of you on the speaking list… You name it.

In these never ending meetings, I always wished to cut all these situations short. Here comes the answer: Our partner Lara has a method she calls „Use your hands“. She has compiled and illustrated the handy list of signs you can use during meetings.

These signs have their roots in sign language and in different activist movements. For example the Occupy movement uses them, too.
„But you don’t need to be an activist to use them, right?“, points out Lara.

She advises to introduce the signs before using them, and to explain how they make things easier. „I always draw them somewhere visible for the whole group, too“, Lara tells. In her meetings and facilitation situations, she usually introduces only a few of the signs to find out whether people are curious and enthusiastic about the idea.

Maybe I will take the list to my next party meeting and see how curious my fellow party members get.

What are your experiences in meetings? Do you find the signs helpful? Would you try these signs in actual meetings?

Links of the Week (Week 40/2015)

Resources,

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

Bring your email inbox down to Zero!

How do you feel about your email? Happy? Overwhelmed? Stressed?

As we go along working with teams and organisations, we often find that individuals feel overwhelmed and out-of-control with their email, putting them under stress and making it difficult to relate to others. After all, working with others will only put more email into your inbox!

If you would like to improve how you handle your email, and spend less time checking and worrying about your inbox and more time getting things done, our Inbox Zero Guide is for you.

Written by personal productivity expert Rob van den Brand, it walks you through a series of simple steps that make you regain control of your email inbox. If you would like personal support, we offer live online coaching for this too. But let’s start simply: Request your free copy of “Inbox Zero” here!