Self-organisation, a path rather than a goal?

Testing the limits

Since I was a child, I liked to be independent and choose what I wanted to do. When I was 4 years old my favorite sentence was "I don't want to". From then on, in my schooling, I took pleasure in confronting authority, questioning it, testing its limits until sometimes exceeding them, and feeling the consequences: punishments, restrictions, bad grades...

These rules that were imposed on me were all the easier to break because I had not participated in setting them up. So I grew up with the feeling that any system would necessarily have imposed and immutable rules, whether in my studies, at work, or within a company.

When I joined Octree, our lean startup studio operating in Holacracy, I discovered another way of working.

Hola-what?

Holacracy is a distributed management system where governance - the way to govern a field of activity - is regulated by a constitution. The concept was formalized in 2007 by Brian Robertson after 5 years of development within his software production company (Ternary Software). Inspired mainly by sociocracy, which shares many common points, Holacracy is now also a company specializing in organizational change. However, the method remains open access.

Octree has adopted this system since 2018. Each member of Octree has a role with areas that he or she alone can control and regulate, although all members are progressing toward a common purpose. In the case of Octree, this is to Create a virtuous circle between society and technology for the benefit of the Human(the latter representing ecological, social, and solidarity values).

This governance allows, among other things, the creation or modification of existing roles and domains. Holacracy is therefore iterative, with mechanisms that allow for regular modifications to the system in place.

Thus, the goal is not always to find the best decision, but to quickly make small decisions that move the organization toward its purpose.

An open system

When it becomes possible to change the rules, complaining or blaming someone else doesn't really make sense anymore. If I'm not happy with a way of doing things, it's not only my responsibility to express it, but more importantly to propose a plan of action to improve the situation.

If no one has a major problem with it, I can go ahead with my decision. There is no majority voting system, but each member must give their opinion and seriously consider the decision and the person making the decision has a duty to listen to them.

☀️ This offers the possibility to be authentic and to turn inward to propose concrete actions that listen to the needs of all.

✊ We move from a thinking mode to an action mode.

In Holacracy, we prefer to implement a small change and go back if it fails rather than spend too long theorizing about the best way to do things and then continue to stick to it when reality objects. After all, mistakes are the best way to learn.

In the systems I've known, it was common to complain about work and blame it on someone else, whether it was your boss, this or that co-worker, or the policies in place in the company.

In his book "Reinventing Organizations", Frédéric Laloux depicts 7 stages of development of human consciousness and relates them to different types of organizations.

Having the ability to change the rules of the game places a degree of responsibility that is sometimes more difficult to manage than when the rules are imposed by an outside entity.

Power and authority then become a driving force for change rather than antagonistic forces against freedom.

Learn the rules of the game

However, to do so, it is important to know and understand the basics of the constitution. Without this, it is not possible to move forward. Just imagine playing a game without knowing the rules against people who know them thoroughly.
Fortunately, in Holacracy, we don't play against, but together, pushing each member to help and fill in the collective gaps.

Thinking back to my 4-year-old self, I think that maybe what bothered him wasn't the rules, but the fact that he didn't have a say in them. Perhaps if I had been able to participate in making them, my favorite phrase would not have been "I don't want to" but "I do want to".

Edouard for Octree

Edouard joined the Octree team in November 2021 to practice UX design and user research.