Holacracy
A written constitution for self-management: circles, roles, and governance meetings in place of managers.
Brian Robertson, Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World
2015
Holacracy Constitution, versions 4 and 5
2015 and 2021
Brian Robertson published the Holacracy Constitution and the book Holacracy in 2015, after developing the system at his software company from 2007. Authority is distributed to roles rather than people, roles sit in nested circles, and governance meetings change the structure through a fixed process. Version 5 of the constitution simplified the rules after years of adoption feedback.
The largest public adoption was Zappos, which lost around 30 percent of its workforce in 2015 and had quietly moved on by 2018. The canvas treats Holacracy as a shape with heavy preconditions, belief and tenure above all, and lists it on the thesis page as an example of a shape that was described without them.
What is the smallest unit that can own a customer outcome end to end?
Which decisions may an agent make alone, and who is able to stop it?
What synchronizes the work when there is no room and half the team is not a person?