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Weekly Wrap: No More Managers? It Just Won’t Work, Even at Zappos
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I like Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, and there are a lot of other people who do, too.
That’s because he’s an innovative business thinker with a ton of interesting ideas, but it doesn’t mean that every idea is golden.
In fact, here’s an example of one Tony Hsieh idea that makes very little sense: holacracy.
A story in Entrepreneur last year described it like this:
Holacracy is a system of governance that takes things like managers, job titles and bureaucratic red tape out of the equation, distributing leadership and power evenly across an organization. Instead of a standard hierarchy, companies in a Holacracy consist of different “circles” and employees can have any range of roles and responsibilities within those circles.”
The point I made back then, when the holacracy idea first emerged, was that I was struggling to understand “how Holacracy or any other egalitarian system that sounds like it was designed more for an Israeli kibbutz rather than a modern American business, is the answer to what organizations need in the 21st Century. ”
I added: “In any environment where decisions have to be made, somebody has to be in charge or designated with the authority to make the call. It’s wonderful to talk about flat business structures where everyone can have a say, but anyone who has dealt with group decision-making knows that it usually leads to chaos and anarchy — as the famous British comedy group Monty Python was fond of pointing out.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xd_zkMEgkI
Well, guess what? I’m not the only one who has a problem with Tony Hsieh’s “holacracy” idea. Some of his employees aren’t buying it, either.
As The Washington Post reported:
In a recent memo, which was first reported by Quartz … Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh wrote that he is offering any exit strategy to any workers who aren’t sold on the unconventional idea. If they are an employee in good standing and meet certain criteria, they can leave the online retailer and get at least three months’ worth of severance. …
In one sense, it’s a way to help employees cope with radical change — while, in the process, filtering the employee pool of the least engaged folks. … But Hsieh’s memo is also a sign that not everyone is buying into the company’s radical new approach. In the lengthy memo, which clocks in at more than 4,700 words, Hsieh writes that “we haven’t made fast enough progress” toward the new approach and admits it’s “not for everyone.” As a result, Hsieh writes that he plans to “take a ‘rip the band aid’ approach” to speed adoption, offering employees who aren’t behind it a way out.”
OK, I get that traditional command-and-control systems don’t work very well in today’s workplace, and that is especially true when it comes to managing younger workers who want to feel that managers are working with them rather than standing over them.
But, it’s a big leap from saying that command-and-control doesn’t work to suddenly getting rid of all management titles. Doesn’t somebody below the CEO level need to be able to make a decision that others will follow?
To show you the struggle Tony Hsieh is having making his staff drink the “holacracy” Kool Aid, the Quartz story on Zappos’ troubles added this tidbit:
Since the rollout began in 2013, it’s been a bumpy ride for the Las Vegas-based company’s 1,400-some employees. Quartz reported earlier this year that the shift has led to some employee departures and questions over whether Holacracy is more about PR and branding for Zappos than systemic organizational change. Alexis Gonzales-Black, the Zappos recruiter tasked with co-leading the transition, left the company (citing personal reasons) in advance of (Hsieh’s) memo.”
Here’s an observation gleaned from years of dealing with dumb management schemes handed down from on high: When the person you’ve charged with leading the transition to the new system gets so fed up that THEY decide to leave, it’s a clear sign that something is terribly wrong.
And when the CEO pushing the system has to write a 4,700 word memo (that’s like 5-6 TLNT blog posts strung together) defending it, well, thou doth protest too much.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Holacracy, and other similar systems, sound wonderful in the same way that communism sounds wonderful if you simply remove the human element from them. Problem is, humans don’t make group decisions all that well. Someone — anyone — needs to be the final arbiter if you ever want to get something decided and keep things moving ahead.
The notion of a “bossless” office is a great trend story, but count me as totally unconvinced that it actually works except in a handful of odd places. As quickly as the world is changing, I somehow doubt that it is changing so fast that we can eliminate having people in charge.
Yes, Tony Hsieh has a lot of great ideas, but he may be reaching the point where his want to generate the latest and greatest “big” idea has overtaken his common sense.
“Holacracy” is a management fad, pure and simple, and like most management fads, it’s destined to turn up someday on the junk pile of bad business ideas that were just too ridiculous to work.
Of course, there’s more than a bad idea from Zappos in the news this week. Here are some HR and workplace-related items you may have missed. This is TLNT’s weekly round-up of news, trends, and insights from the world of talent management. I do it so you don’t have to.