An article by George Anders on Zappos in Forbes appeared this week. Anders writes about “innovation, careers and unforgettable personalities” for Forbes Magazine and formerly for the Wall Street Journal, two of the most respected and long-lived business sources. I honestly never thought I would see Holacracy, Zappos, Forbes in the same sentence. Kudos to Brian.
This is one of the more sensible articles on the Zappos adoption of Holacracy, less sensationalistic though Anders characterizes Holacracy as “a New Age approach to leadership that involves no job titles, no formal bosses, and lots of overlapping work circles instead.” Any mention of “new age” is fairly sensationalistic and it is inaccurate that either sociocracy or Holacracy have no job titles and no formal bosses. And of course it was not the invention of “business guru” Brian Robertson, nor is Zappos, at 1,500 employees, “by far the biggest company” organize based on these principles.
What Robertson and Zappos have done is attract the attention of many strategy consultants, journalists, and business school professors. Partly this is because Zappos even before deciding to adopt Holacracy was known for innovative thinking on leadership, customer service, and human resources. It is not unexpected that Zappos would adopt a circular organization that respects its employees as it does its customers. The Zappos core values even before Holacracy were to:
- Embrace and Drive Change
- Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
- Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
- Pursue Growth and Learning
- Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
- Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
- Do More With Less
- Be Passionate and Determined
- Be Humble
The bulk of the article, however, is a summary of William Tincup’s post on the Fistful of Talent blog which raises six points that will challenge Zappos. The original Tincup article is here. I will be doing comments on that article tomorrow.
Posted 9 January 2014 at 12:34 on the Forbes Magazine website, accessed on 11 January 2014:
Categories: In the Workplace
