Holacracy

I was introduced to this concept a couple of weeks ago. It is a different way of viewing organizational structures. Traditionally we view things hierarchically with single lines of command and control and rigidity. Holacracy builds on Agile approaches to team process and scales the fundamental underlying concepts across the entire organization. The fundamental underpinnings are trust, communication, focus and urgency. Several of the higher conceptual layers are interesting.

At the highest level, holacracy views the organization as a collection of overlapping team circles of increasing scope. Each team circle is a complete cell with its own governance and processes. Each team circle is not self-directing, but takes flowdown from the next scoping level for direction. Each team circle elects a representative to link up to the next higher scope team circle. Each higher level team circle elects a representative to link down into the next lower scope team circle.

Another interesting concept is that of rhythm, the temporal heartbeat of an organization. Rhythm granularity is consistent for the overall organization as well as in the microcosm of each individual team. There are daily, weekly, monthly and larger scale rhythmic pulses for meeting frequency and structure. Daily standups are for quick fast-firing communication of what is to be accomplished that particular day. Weekly tactical meetings are for dealing with the necessary things to be done on a particular week.

Iterative tactical meetings organize execution for multiple week sprints that break projects down into manageable chunks. Monthly governance meetings are for discussing how the team/organization will work together and what changes need to be considered. Strategic meetings can occur quarterly or 1-2 times per year to look forward across a longer time horizon to adjust direction at a more macro level of control.

Holacracy is positioned as a new operating system for the organization. It embraces short bursts of activity toward a long term goal with frequent feedback loops and adaptive mechanisms for quick fine-grained steering. It draws from successful processes that have been pioneered at the team level and embraces, extends and scales these concepts up to the level of the organization.

Information, Organization and Emergence

Originally posted in my old blog in September 2008.

One of the most interesting ideas to come out of 20th century science is the possibility that the Universe is information. Information organized into a particular format results in the emergence of a yet higher form of information and reality. Changing something about the fundamental organization of the information at a particular level of reality can destroy or change drastically the higher levels of reality built upon it. For example, imagine tweaking one of the 6 constant numbers responsible for the organization of our Universe. Reality as we know it would cease to exist.

Much of the important technology in the 21st century is information technology. This kind of technology is pure organization of information. Web technologies that did not exist 20 years ago are higher levels of information organization. New techniques for creating online applications are different ways of organizing information than those of creating desktop applications. The fundamental unit of currency is information.

Financial reality in the modern sense is all about information organization. I never see the millions of dollars I will make in my lifetime for the most part. It exists as an idea that is made concrete on a computer screen. Because of the numbers I may see in a particular organization on a web site (itself built by chains and levels of information organization) I may feel happy or sad, confident or insecure.

I may go to work and spend my days organizing information, creating new ways to organize information. At the end of the pay period other numbers are organized into a particular format of wages, tax deductions, retirement plans and health benefits. I organize information and I am paid by the organization of other information. I can eat because of these abstract ways of information organization that have emerged from lower level ways of concrete organization found in earlier economic systems that included bartering and exchange of gold.

Regarding emergence.

The spiritual emerges from the psychological which emerges from the physical organism which emerges from the laws of biology which emerge from the laws of chemistry which emerge from the laws of physics.

My blog emerged from web technologies which emerged from software technologies which emerged from hardware technologies which emerged from quantum physics which ultimately emerged from lower levels of information which constitute the fundamental fabric of the Universe.