Do your meetings drone on for hours without much getting done? Do you have too many meetings given what needs to be accomplished? While I've always tried to adhere to the meeting basics, I've never quite encountered anything like the Holacracy Governance Meeting format. I've been using this technique with my entrepreneurial clients for the past month and the results have been dramatic. With one client, we managed to break through a roadblock that had been stalling management for months during a one hour meeting. With another client, we defined seven new roles and started a major new initiative with clear accountability (also in about one hour). It requires concentration, discipline and a lot of skillful facilitation. It is not easy... but the results can be stunning.
Tor those of you who don't know about Holacracy, it is a new form of governance that takes the best ideas from modern corporate organizations, splices in learnings from agile software development and other leading ideas and outlines a new framework for operating in today's dynamic business world. This is particularly helpful for technology companies, where change is always pushing the leading edge. HolacracyOne, which promotes Holacracy as a new form of corporate governance, was founded by Brian Robertson and Tom Thomison.
I do not qualify as a Holacracy expert by any means. I attended a four hour introductory seminar in which Tom and Brian led us through a sample Governance meeting. Holacracy defines organization structures oriented around circles, operational meeting formats and a rich set of tools and constructs to transform your organization. I've only focused on using the Governance meeting format so far... I like to walk before I run!
At its core, the Governance meeting format is intended to allow ideas to emerge from the group. This emergent property of the format is the most remarkable and beneficial aspect from my perspective. Meetings are no longer about competing ideas. They become about resolving tensions with a workable (albeit not the "perfect") solution.
Secondarily, I find my clients and I can move at lightyear speed compared to traditional meetings. This alone is enough benefit to try this format in your company, but the ability to have the team contribute to an emergent solution really unleashes your organization's intelligence as an entity. It is nothing short of a transcendent experience when it is done well.
I can't describe the process nearly as well as the HolacracyOne team. I highly recommend that you attend one of their potent seminars. I'll give a brief overview of the phases of a governance meeting (as I understand them!) below... but HolacracyOne is the definitive source on this.
The meetings are run by a facilitator.
Checkin: The meeting starts off with everyone saying 1 - 2 sentences about how they are feeling. Gives important context if, for example, someone is sick or anxious about something. TIME: 1-2 minutes
Administration: Covers the time frame of the meeting, relevant updates, etc. TIME: 1-3 minutes
Agenda developed: People put things on the agenda in the form of "proposals". The proposals are just 1-3 sentences about how something should be approached. All proposals are collected - and the facilitator prioritizes TIME: 2-5 minutes
Integrative Decision Making. HolacracyOne calls this the "short format". Each proposal is handled, in sequence with the following steps:
Presentation: The proposer verbally describes his or her proposal. No cross talk allowed.
Reaction & Clarify Round. Each person says 1-2 sentences about their gut reaction OR asks a clarifying question. Moderator points out anything that isn't "just a reaction or a clarifying question" and quells cross talk.
Amendment: Proposer has an opportunity to amend the proposal in service of clarifying or accommodating a reaction.
Objection Round: The final part of the process is to enter a cycle of "objection round". This round goes on until a "workable" solution is attained. The word workable is important. That is the bar that the team commits to - not higher. The facilitator cuts off the work on this proposal once a solution is workable to everyone involved.
Each person is allowed to succinctly state any objection they have to the proposal. No cross -talk. Objections are recorded and then integrated. After each person is polled for their objections, the team opens up a conversation about integrating the objections. The facilitator makes sure the team stays on task.
A lot of the magic occurs here. A funny thing happens. All of this extra baggage that normally enters this kind of conversation has been stripped away. The idea quickly is no longer identified with the proposer as team member objections - which can sometimes be quite significant - are integrated into a solution.
For example, imagine if the proposal is to ensure every new customer contract be approved by the CFO before being signed by the salesman.
Sam Salesman objects that this won't work since 25% of his contracts are emergency calls that he fields in off hours. This approach would effectively gut him of 25% revenue.
During the integration the CFO complains that too many bad contracts are being signed with unfavorable terms for the company. The facilitator asks for ideas and someone suggests that the salesmen be given "pre-approved emergency contracts" which can be used - but anyone wanting custom terms has to wait for approval. The salesman thinks this is a "workable" compromise.
The proposal is updated and subject to another round of objections. Hopefully, you get the idea. This kind of conversation effectively integrates a tension across sales and the finance group. And you can always change it in a future governance meeting.
Sounds great, right?
Here are three challenges I've found in my first 60 days of experimenting with Holacracy Governance Meetings:
1) Old habits die hard. The biggest problem that I've found with this approach is that it is hard to get people to change their old habits. That makes it tougher on the facilitator - but can be managed. Keeping momentum in using and expanding the format seems like it will be a challenge. Training new facilitators appears that it will become a critical success factor.
2) People who fidget have to learn to focus. These meetings move fast - and anyone checking their palm pilot or doodling will be left in the dust.
3) If you are a novice facilitator (like me), this can kick your butt. Because of #1, the facilitator must constantly shut people down, redirect conversations and limit long-winded reactions. To do that, the facilitator has to step on toes, violate boundaries and hold people accountable for their actions. Transparency falls right out of this - you can't hide from the Holacratic light!
Given the benefit, this is well worth the effort. It is one of the best practices for effectiveness that I've ever seen introduced in my business career. It ranks right up their with the consultant's "2x2 matrix" and the project manager's "Gannt Chart". The most amazing thing is that this is just one piece of the Holacracy puzzle for transforming organizations into intelligent entities. Give it a try.
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