Help, we don't have a boss!
For six years now, we at Great Place To Work Switzerland have embraced self-organization. But what does that exactly entail? Is it now chaos and anarchy? How did it come about, and what does collaboration look like for us in practice?
Our aim is to provide authentic insights into our organization, openly discussing what works well for us and where we see room for improvement. We'll showcase how we organize ourselves, how we initially implemented our agile setup, how it manifests in our daily work, and what guiding principles underpin successful collaboration.
Transitioning from a "classically hierarchical" setup to agility – A Summary of the Why and How
Great Place To Work Switzerland was established on June 4, 2008. Initially, it was essentially a one-person show with a managing director, supported by student workers. As the company rapidly gained customers, the team expanded. With around 10 employees, discussions arose regarding the next phase of growth and the future organizational structure. The logical step seemed to be additional hierarchy levels and team leads.
Friction Loss and the Need for Swifter Decision-Making
Simultaneously, rapid growth necessitated faster decision-making. An increasing number of issues landed on the desk of our then CEO, Michael Hermann. After all, decision-making fell within his purview as the managing director, right? However, the bottleneck of decisions and the delays in obtaining them led to inefficiencies and friction. Michael Hermann recognized this.
Increasing Responsibility Across the Board
An adapted team structure was necessary, allowing certain decisions to be 'delegated' to relieve Michael and empower the team further. Some team members also desired more responsibility in their areas without necessarily assuming personnel leadership.
So, how could we ensure quick decision-making, adaptability to change, and reinforce a sense of ownership across the team?
Holacracy, Sociocracy, collegial leadership, or our own model?
In our quest for a suitable model for transformation, we encountered established concepts such as Holacracy, Sociocracy, and collegial leadership. However, we deliberately refrained from merely copying existing models like Holacracy. Instead, we scrutinized our genuine needs and objectives.
Based on this analysis, we scrutinized the concepts and assessed their suitability for us. (In Part 2 of this article, you'll discover our exact setup and its implications for our collaboration.) This introspective approach culminated in the development of a customized approach emphasizing flexibility, perfectly aligned with our requirements.
After numerous meetings, workshops, and learning sessions, we now boast a tailored, efficient organizational model that has served us well over six years. And here's how we achieved it.
Step by Step: Our Journey to Agility
Organizations collaborating with us have likely heard: Change doesn't happen overnight; it takes time. Our transformation was no exception.
This phase entailed defining goals, a trial phase, and continual adjustments based on insights.
December 2017 – January 2018: Concept Creation and Finalization
Conny, one of the early employees now a co-owner at Great Place To Work, played a pivotal role. She immersed herself in literature, brought back insights to the team, and introduced the circle structure and a novel decision-making process. For months, we deliberated various aspects and pondered optimal implementation strategies.
February 2018: Unanimous Agreement
After final refinements, everyone endorsed the plan, embracing the "safe enough to try" ethos. Shareholders deemed the company sturdy enough for the transition, yet flexible enough to revert to the previous structure if needed. Although concerns lingered regarding neglected issues or tasks, we adhered to the core principle: If something matters, someone will assume responsibility for it; otherwise, it's non-essential for the organization.
Even the former CEO acknowledged the pragmatic advantages: "Self-organization distributed responsibility across many heads. Initially, one might wonder about the efficacy of decision-making with collective input. However, colleagues' commitment and thoughtfulness surged when everyone could contribute - and was required to do so to propel matters forward."
March 2018: Kickstart
In March 2018, we hosted our two-day workshop "Going Agile" with the entire team. Here, we reiterated goals and collaborated to devise strategies for achieving each objective. Specifically, we deliberated and fleshed out:
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Communication: Ensuring everyone has pertinent information.
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Collaboration: Structuring meetings, delineating roles, responsibilities, and competencies.
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Decision-making: Designating decision-makers, establishing the process.
During these two days, we determined essential circles (teams), their responsibilities, priorities, composition, and individual commitments in respective roles/circles.
Conny Schättle reminisces:
"At the outset, we invested considerable time in dialogue, continuous reflection, and experimentation. Central to the restructuring's success was discovering the optimal collaboration format for us."
And thus, we embarked on experimentation and learning.
August 2018: Conclusion of the Trial Phase and Lessons Learned
After five months, the entire team convened for a "Being Agile – Lessons Learned" workshop, reflecting on successes and areas necessitating revision.
The verdict:
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We achieved both minor and major victories: Circles were established, coordinators appointed, Microsoft Teams adopted as a communication tool, seating arrangements adjusted, among other milestones.
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Efficiency gains fell short of expectations: Decision-making and meeting efficiency warranted improvement.
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Key information dissemination required refinement: Ensuring essential information accessibility and stakeholder engagement.
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Clarifying responsibilities remained a priority: Defining accountability and decision-making mechanisms.
In the ensuing months, we persisted in addressing these issues and experimenting with solutions.
Spoiler Alert: We haven't resolved every challenge and continue evolving these areas.
April 2019: Sustained Engagement
After a year of experimentation, we observed that the company continued to operate smoothly, projects were progressing, and chaos was absent. We decided to persist with the self-organized setup and further refine it.
Over the years, we've fine-tuned various aspects, maintaining the core of our agile setup. While some processes have been nearly perfected, others remain a work in progress. With our growth, new challenges naturally emerge. For instance, how can we ensure seamless onboarding experiences for new employees? How do we provide constructive feedback and recognition? In what ways can we offer positive feedback?
Before delving into these points, let's elucidate what our agile setup entails today.
Our Agile Setup - Circles, CCC, Task Forces, and Committees
Great Place To Work operates on the principle of self-organization. Responsibilities and decision-making authority are distributed among self-organizing teams, known as "circles."
You'll soon notice that we employ various names for certain structures. This isn't due to highly complex structures akin to multinational corporations. Rather, at some point, we decided to just have some fun with it :D
Organization in Circles
Our organizational structure revolves around circles, each with defined roles, responsibilities, and decision-making powers. This fosters transparency and accountability within the teams.
Circle Coordinators serve as Primus/Prima inter Pares, responsible for organizing their circle and representing its perspective to other circles, such as at the Cross-Circle-Council (CCC). (The Circle Coordinator typically rotates every 12 months to prevent one person from accruing excessive responsibility and "power." While we still uphold the underlying principle of a bi-yearly rotation, we've found frequent changes to be inefficient in practice.)
Cross-Circle-Council (CCC)
The CCC facilitates cross-circle communication. Every month, all Circle Coordinators convene to exchange information about developments in their circles and any potential impacts on others. Sometimes, it involves testing an idea and gathering feedback from all circles' perspectives, ensuring comprehensive input.
Purpose-Specific Committees and Task Forces
Apart from circles, time-limited task forces or topic-specific committees play vital roles in collaboration. Their "purpose" and/or duration are predetermined. The idea is to enable anyone interested in a particular topic to participate.
Task Force
Nearly three years ago, Great Place To Work introduced its proprietary SaaS survey tool, Emprising™, globally. This initiative necessitated discussions on various issues: tool functionalities, transitioning from the existing tool to the new one, project management, positioning, client communication, internal process adjustments, and more. To address this, we assembled a temporary task force comprising all key stakeholders, dissolved upon project completion or achieving the set objectives.
Committee
Annually, we conduct our Salary Pitch (more on this in a separate video - coming soon). For this, a committee is randomly selected each year. Although the committee members change annually, their tasks remain constant: our Comp&Ben Committee evaluates inflation adjustments and ensures salary fairness within and outside the team as part of our salary pitch. (You'll also gain insights into our salary pitch and intra- and inter-circle fairness in the upcoming video).
You'll learn about more committees, such as our Culture Hub, in the subsequent weeks :D
Projects & Strategic Initiatives
Occasionally, meetings or workshops spawn projects or initiatives. Here, interested individuals collaborate on the topic. Voluntary participation ensures high motivation and individual responsibility.
These examples highlight how team members assume additional responsibilities and contribute to various projects.
With this first article, we aim to offer you a glimpse behind the scenes at Great Place To Work Switzerland, detailing our transition from a "classically hierarchical" setup to self-organization. Our intention isn't to provide a step-by-step guide for transitioning to agility but rather to share our journey, successes, and learnings.
And we're only just getting started. Would you like to learn more about our daily collaboration? What the guiding principles of our collaboration are? What's going well? And what challenges are we currently facing?
We're looking forward to be sharing more about our journey with you in the next article. Enjoy reading!
