Our countries, companies, our schools, our organizations are all hierarchical.  Yes, there is someone in charge.  Hopefully, the persons in charge are dedicated leaders. Sometimes they are not.  And, those associated with such entities suffer.

Which is why folks like Brian Robertson are propounding a new concept: Holacracy.  At its heart, holacracy is a social technology.  The proponents swear it leads to agile organizations that adhere to specific purposes.  The organization involved is supposed to be able to adapt to various situations, with distributed leadership (and, therefore, capable of making faster decisions).

If you detect skepticism in my words, you are not mistaken.  It’s not that the theory leaves me cold, it’s the execution that terrifies me.

Let’s start with simple things.  This process requires everyone to have equal knowledge – to know what is best and be able to contribute to that ultimate good.  Because the second there is a differential in knowledge, then there is a question of who will be the leader?  Do we really want the blind leading the way?

Or, what happens when members (there are no manager, right?) decide for themselves that learning is no longer important, nor is examining the facts without bias?  You can’t see that scenario?  How about the Congress of 2013, when almost every congressman decided that the leadership should not be able to steer the body’s actions?  Where many voted with their own bias (actually more often with the bias of various lobbyists funded by the Koch brothers or Grover Norquist)?  Do you think that would let a country- or a company- remain as the leader in its field?

Do you think that we could lead our country or company by sending tweets to one another, where each of us is free to follow whatever whim we chose?  After all, democracy in Greece meant each person (ok, person of wealth- see it really wasn’t everyone!) got to vote on the actions of the community.  That didn’t work- which is why America operates as  a democratic republic.

This also does not mean that I (or you) want dictators.   It’s not an “either-or” situation.  It has been our (management) practice to generally operate our companies within guidelines and various leaders.  None of our founders ever claimed to have all the answers; just the ability to set the parameters where we all could find the best answer.

I’ve spoken about the US Jaycees,  that organization that now allows folks of both genders learn leadership and organizational skills, as long as they are over 18 and less than 40.   Yes, there is a President, an Administrative Vice President, and a slew of other officers.

But, any member can suggest a project- the trick is to find a bunch of followers (or other members) who also thinks it is worthwhile and go with it.  But, there still are the executive officers there to provide institutional memory, help guide folks through the hoops of a project, to insure that it is documented, so that others can learn what works or doesn’t.

But, let’s see what Zappos (one of the larger firms beginning to adopt the concept) does with this holacracy.  Right now, they are trying it for a select, small portion of their operation.  (That should work fine.  It’s when it gets extended to all, that we run into the problems outlined above).

In case you didn’t get the reason behind the title…

H…………….Y
HIERARCHY     HOLOCRACY

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