When The Boss Becomes a Bottleneck
It is impossible to attribute the shift to something as unique as Holacracy® to one isolated event, but for Convert, the trigger to explore self-management was seeing Brian Robertson’s TED Talk on Holacracy.
It coincided with a number of concerns plaguing Convert co-founders Dennis van der Heijden & Claudiu Rogoveanu. In a space as mature and competitive as conversion rate optimization, Convert wanted to grow without getting bureaucratic. They wanted their team members to have the freedom to make decisions and at the same time stay aligned to the organization’s goals. Most importantly, they wanted a healthy company culture where no one was reporting to “bad bosses” who were spread too thin and snapped at every email or DM.
I was talking to my co-founder Claudiu, and we realized that there is something that sucks a lot more than being the boss: being the employee of a bad boss.
– Dennis van der Heijden, co-founder at Convert
The Bridge Between Holacracy & Hierarchy
No change is immediate and the transition to Holacracy is a journey. Morgan Legge was given the massive job of understanding how Holacracy works and developing the practice in Convert’s remote, distributed team — one small change at a time.
There was resistance to the idea of having no leaders. There was resistance to the idea of not having a boss set the pace of work. But gradually two important realizations dawned:
Everyone is a leader. People lead their roles.
Purpose was the new boss. It guided decision-making and priorities.
Those who embraced these changes gradually welcomed the empowerment of Holacracy. They discovered that Convert could provide more than a job. It could give them the ecosystem where personal purpose could find expression with the organization’s purpose.
The World’s the Oyster
Convert has always been a 100% remote team. But with the introduction of Holacracy, true merit-based hiring became possible. They could take on core members and freelancers from all corners of the world and had the confidence to expect great results, despite the challenges of disparate time zones and cultural differences. Why? Because the Holacracy practice gives each role clear boundaries so that each person knows both what authority they have and the limits of that authority.
Yes, there is miscommunication. Yes, it takes team members time to adjust to each other’s quirks and habits. Yes, there is chaos — sometimes. However, practicing Holacracy makes it easy to reacquaint with the purpose, align with the vision and identify priorities to get back on track. Without Holacracy, the massive injection of diversity (and the associated advantage of innovation) could never have been realized or leveraged.
– Morgan Legge, Operations | HR | Engagement at Convert
You’re the Boss
As the adoption was rolled out, it removed the need for Bosses at the top and middle managers. The ultimate authority lies with the Holacracy Constitution, which provides a set of rules that guide how to distribute authority among roles. Anyone filling a role in a Holacracy-powered company is granted authority by the Constitution to do whatever is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the role. Each and every individual is equipped to take decisions within their authority, use the governance process to make course corrections and seize the moment — as long as the action they take serves the purpose of their role.
With the burden of approval and consensus lifted, some people blossomed. They took on more responsibilities and pursued ambitious ideas. Others proved themselves to be competent specialists and team players who supported the initiative-takers and made progress possible.
At Convert we call them rocks (those who hold the fort) and rockstars (those who innovate, building on the foundation).
– Morgan Legge, Operations | HR | Engagement at Convert
Catalyzing Growth with Tensions
The team at Convert has learned that a “tension” (as defined by Holacracy) is a gap — between a present reality and a desired outcome. When tensions are expressed, they know it’s a sign that improvements are on the horizon.
The diversity of perspectives, skill-sets and ethos in Convert’s distributed team is now one of their most unique assets: Differences can be leveraged to chisel out great things.
Most of the work at Convert is done asynchronously, so Holacracy meetings have become spaces where team members can process their tensions. If anyone stumbles, fails, or disagrees along the way, it is just another tension that can eventually pave the way for future successes.
We have a mantra at Convert — “Progress not perfection.”
It creates a work space where failing is celebrated. As an A/B testing company we know the importance of failures. At the heart of every successful test, there is a variant that lost. And taught why some things work and others don’t.
– Morgan Legge, Operations | HR | Engagement at Convert
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