Installing a new OS for our company
Part 1. Training our people.

By Matthijs Collard (Hike One blog) - 28 May 2018

Today, three of my colleagues started with the “Holacracy Practitioner Training”.

The training is given by Brian Robertson. He developed Holacracy and is the author of the book “Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World.”

I read the book. No, I listened to it. Twice even. But I didn’t join the training. I might go later this year. But I will sign the constitution somewhere in the upcoming two months. These 39 pages document the core rules, structure, and processes of the Holacracy “operating system”. It also means that I will no longer “manage” my company Hike One. Nor will Rick, my business partner. 

After the adoption of Holacracy, the organization and the people manage themselves, using the processes described in the constitution.

We will adopt a customizable self-management practice. They say it is like installing a new operating system for your company. And if you ever switched operating system, for example from Windows to Linux or to Mac, you know this is usually not something that is accomplished without much thought or effort. So imagine switching the OS of a 10 year old company.

Part 1 of the series

This is the first of a series of posts about us installing this new OS. I will explain why we choose this path. Why I think it works for our company. What I learned from my conversations and visits to other companies in The Netherlands. And of course, I will share our experiences, best practices, and insights during the process.

The training and what comes next

The 3 people at the training are Caya, Fenna, and Martijn. We had 4 other candidates that were eager to go. Together we decided that this trio was a good start. Why? First of all, Caya, Fenna, and Martijn work from different locations. So we cover our offices in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, and Rotterdam. This way, we will have trained Holacracy practitioners at every location before we even start. These 3 colleagues also have different profiles.

Martijn used to set up all our operational processes but these days he is responsible for sales and strategy. Because he knows all the ins-and-outs of how we work, his opinion matters a lot. At first, he was skeptical about self-management. Who would be responsible for long-term strategy? It helped that we started with listing our Objectives and Key Results last year. I am very curious about his take on Holacracy after the training. In one of the upcoming posts, I will interview him and share his thoughts with you.

Fenna is our Team Lead in Eindhoven. An experienced designer leading a fast growing team. She recently helped move to our new office in Eindhoven. Now she is organising the launch party. Fenna is also involved in new business plans and did I mention she is on our social media team? If there is somebody with multiple roles, it is Fenna.

Caya is a talented interaction designer. She started her career 3 years ago at Hike One. She was part of the Holacracy experiment for our Academy circle and acted as a lead link. She is super enthusiastic about the method and threw around some 🎉 and 🤗‘s when she learned that she was going to do the training.

Company taster, June 7th.

Together with our coach, organizationBuilders, we have organized a Holacracy Taster session upcoming June 7th for the whole team (70+ people). Together we will experience what Holacracy means. After the taster, we will use the “Integrative Decision-Making process" (#lmgtfy) to decide as a group to officially start with the installation of this new OS.

What do you want to know?

There is a lot to tell about self-management. If there is something you would like to know, please ask. I a happy to tell you about our experience. So if you have any questions or requests, let me know on Twitter or send me an email at matthijscollard@hike.one.