Zappos and Holacracy

“It’s kind of deliciously ironic that self-management is being decreed from above.”
— Jeffrey Pfeffer¹

“Holacracy, itself, is too complex, dogmatic, and rigid.”
— Bud Caddell²

I’ve previously written about it here. There is always a cost in trying to script people’s behavior. They might decide to withdraw their engagement. I think this is what’s happening at Zappos right now. And I’d suspect there’re people staying at Zappos who’ll just play the game, but withdraw their hearts. Time will tell.

Notes
¹ Richard Feloni, Inside Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s radical management experiment that prompted 14% of employees to quit, Business Insider UK, 2015-05-16.
² Bud Caddell, Why Self-Organizing is So Hard, 2015-03-27.

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