Holawhat?

Holacracy is an operating system for organizations that want to maximize the self-organizing capabilities of individuals and teams without relying on a management hierarchy. At Voys there are no formal power holders. All power is derived from the Holacracy Constitution; the purpose is the boss.

The most important consequence of this is that work is never done by people, but only by roles. Get used to asking yourself in which role you are working. If you want work from someone else, ask yourself what role you are asking work from. If you need a decision on something, it is probably up to your role to make that decision. If you are ever afraid that you are not following the rules, remember that it is better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

To be effective at Voys it is important that you become familiar with the theory, practices and rules of Holacracy. You have received a book about Holacracy in your welcome package, please take the time to read that book and discuss any questions with your colleagues. We’ll also ask you to read all the emails from the ‘Holacracy Habits’ program that you receive from Glassfrog. If you have any questions about Holacracy, you can also approach a Holacracy Coach.

Holacracy is a system that creates a lot of clarity on who is doing what. ❤️‍🔥Our purpose & our impact tell us Why we exist, ❤️Our core values and 🪆Principles: our core values unpacked on How we want to work together. Our 🔁Outlook strategy process helps us get clarity on Where we What we want to do.

The Basics

There are a few concepts (and words to learn) that are essential to know if you work in an organization that runs on Holacracy. You’ve learned about these in your onboarding, but for a deep(er) dive this is the place to be!

📜 The Holacracy Constitution version 5

Core roles

There are several 'core-roles' in Holacracy: the Circle Lead, Circle Rep, Secretary and Facilitator. Below you'll find information that is particular to those roles. Helpful if you're energizing one of these roles for the first time or want to take your role to the next level.

Meetings

There are two types of meetings: Tactical Meetings, where we work in the organization (operational stuff), and Governance Meetings, where we work on the organization. Each meeting is facilitated by the Facilitator. The Secretary is the role in charge of planning the meetings.

Some other useful things to know:

• Neither tactical nor governance meetings are mandatory to attend, unless you’re specifically asked to prioritize attending a specific meeting. It’s up to you to decide whether your presence is useful;
• Every role can bring tensions to both types of meetings;
• The ‘agenda’ for the meeting is created on the fly based on tensions people bring;
• If you give an update on metrics for your role, try to not only share the data but to give information based on that data;
• For project updates during tactical meetings, you only have to focus on the relevant changes since the last update. Keep it short and informative, no need to give an overview of the entire project unless someone asks. Make sure to also write project updates in Notion.
• Tensions in meetings are often very operational. Don’t shy away from bringing bigger issues to a meeting. And use governance to solve tensions. If you expect something of a role for example, maybe an accountability should be added to create clarity.
• Metrics and projects are both great sources of tensions. If a metric is different from expected, this should lead to tension. Are the metrics wrong? Do we know why the metric is off? Do we need to adjust a process or maybe the metric itself? If you are presenting a metric, it’s good to bring answers!

Meeting Cards

Meeting cards are helpful to keep at hand during the meeting, they explain each step of the process.

Informative resources

There is a ton of information out there on Holacracy. We’ve selected some of the best resources here if you want to learn more.

Podcasts

Another podcast, this time Wouter sat down with Dutch Master Practicioner in Holacracy who helped us implement Holacracy all those years ago; Diederick Janse. About the logical topic; how did it all go back in the days

Podcast with Wouter & Mark to talk about ‘Why introduce Holacracy in the first place, and more…’

GlassFrog tips & tricks

❓GlassFrog Knowledge Base

Courses & Workshops

One of the best way to learn Holacracy is to practice it in real life, for which you’ll have plenty of opportunities at Voys. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.

Internally we offer the Holacracy for Humans workshop (link below) a few times per year

There are several ways you can do independent learning, or use your study budget + time for extra courses and workshops. Contact one of the Holacracy coaches for recommendations!