Written Assignment

Summary Recommendation -- Process 2

After the team discussion regarding iQmetrix’s future path, our team concludes that Holacracy is still suitable in its implementation. We would further support it with points that would make Holacracy work for iQmetrix.

Facing Problems

To move forward with Holacracy, iQmetrix will need to foresee the following issues:

Less Productivity

As there could be a lot of team meetings for more hours every day, this might result in less productivity. As per the structure of Holacracy, no one in the company is restricted to one role, and everyone can work on whatever job they like. Moreover, due to the multiple responsibilities, they are assigned to different circles, and it becomes necessary to attend all the meetings related to their tasks (Reston, 2015). Eventually, this may turn into an overpowering task, and employees get exhausted. Therefore, iQmetrix should focus on structuring the meetings, limiting each employee’s day-to-day tasks, and creating a stress-free work environment.

Employee Remuneration

iQmetrix might face potential issues when implementing a pay structure (Griswold, 2014) for their employees as most people might work on the same roles and responsibilities. If all such employees are not paid equally, there are high chances of jumping out of the company. Equal recognition, appreciation, and awards, remunerations should be given to all the employees. In this case, iQmetrix might face any financial challenges to cover all the employees’ compensation and cross over their budget. Therefore, it’s critically important to classify the employees under certain circles based on their skills, experience factors, etc.

Time Consuming and Divisive

With Holacracy, everything functions as a team by setting appropriate goals. As iQmetrix expands with more employees, team coordination might become more complex as everyone needs to align with the decisions and challenges. This might be more time-consuming as the company should educate their issues with everyone and becomes complex. It also requires a profound commitment to governance of all the roles and responsibilities (Doyle, 2016) and should be recorded accordingly. To overcome this, the communication should be transparent enough and reach all the employees quickly.

Decision Making Responsibility

If the iQmetrix runs its business successfully and everything is going smoothly. But, in challenging situations, when the company or any project faces any significant issues, who will be responsible for making the right decision (Burnam, 2015)? For example, if the company needs to lay off any people, cut any additional benefits, etc., who is responsible for taking any corrective actions and which team members should leave?

Clarity in Roles and Responsibilities

As the company grows, there should be more jobs, and defining roles and responsibilities for each position should be prominent (Doyle, 2016). If it’s generic, more people might be interested in taking that role out of enthusiasm, and if they do not reach the performance goals, it might be a loss for the company. To avoid such mistakes, all the job descriptions should be well communicated and discussed with the employees. And this should happen before hiring or being assigned into any circles or before someone chooses any tasks.

Implementation Strategy

Our discussion showed that the new implementation of Holacracy would be introduced in stages over time. A phased roll-out is the best approach, mainly since iQmetrix’s employee base is spread over different geographic areas and comprises different company departments. It would make sense to start with one office as a pilot location, ideally, one that has a good mix of different departments, so there is a chance for Holacracy to touch upon each part of the company. By starting with a smaller group of employees, iQmetrix can adjust policies and procedures accordingly to customize it to the company’s and employees’ needs, without the headache of making adjustments company-wide. Implementing a whole new system will also be less confusing if done on a smaller scale. When the implementation is deemed successful, it will be easier to roll out to the rest of the company and encourage employees to adopt this new system faster. The Regina, Saskatchewan office, being the original founding office, is the best option to pilot the implementation of Holacracy. Because they have the widest variety of functions, iQmetrix will get a better idea of how the system is deployed and affects various departments. Having the benefit of testing it out, improvements can be made to the 2nd roll-out, which will lead to a more effective implementation amongst the rest of the company.

Application of Lewin and Kotter’s Methods

Methods of Lewin and Kotter will be applied when designing the phased roll-out. Kotter’s comprehensive approach covers the three principal aspects of Lewin’s method: unfreezing, movement and refreezing. Out of Kotter’s eight steps, the first four steps expand on Lewin’s “unfreezing” stage, steps fifth, sixth and seventh exhibit “movement,” and the eighth step corresponds to “refreezing.” These steps involve a) putting efforts into convincing people to implement change such as Holacracy in the case of iQmetrix, b) implementing the change/Holacracy by eliminating iQmetrix’s previous barriers like increased opacity, rewarding small positive accomplishments, and reassessing changes c) strengthening positive changes by showing Circles the connection between newly implemented changes and iQmetrix’s success. The lead links would play a crucial role in creating compelling narratives to successfully implement change and refine changes to maintain the best results.

Lewin and Kotter’s methods clearly encourage a phased roll-out for iQmetrix. A phased roll-out would give iQmetrix the scope to reassess new changes relative to Holacracy, at a smaller scale, before rolling them extensively across all offices. The goal here would be to use Holacracy for speeding up the decision-making process, and progressing its implementation at iQmetrix, from small to large scale would be an efficient way to achieve it.

Initial Draft of Report Outline and Next Steps

Prepare a general outline for the final report. Assign who will write which sections.

· Title page

· Introduction to the problem faced by iQmetrix – Crystal

· Executive Summary: Overview of how you addressed this problem (your research and the questions that arose in it) – Crystal

· Analysis: Research/readings/reflections you did to determine the solutions you listed in the Executive Summary – Vivian & Urvi

· Recommendations: Should iQmetrix implement Holacracy? If so, how should it implement it? If not, what should it do instead to solve the problems that made the CEO consider Holacracy? – Subashini

Assign next steps to team members and begin writing the initial draft of the report.

· Arrange the next meeting to discuss the input and thoughts on writing the report and presenting this final project.

· Make an agreement and mutual commitment on each one’s section with appropriate methods and approaches.

· Start working on each one’s section.

· Proofread and formatting – Crystal

References

Burnam, C. (2015, November 10). 3 reasons Holacracy isn't a good fit for most businesses. Entrepreneur. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/251868

Doyle, A. (2016, March 4). Management and organization at medium. Medium. https://blog.medium.com/management-and-organization-at-medium-2228cc9d93e9#.eijmirgzd

Griswold, A. (2014, Jan 6). Here's why eliminating titles and managers at Zappos probably won't work. Businessinsider. https://www.businessinsider.com/zappos-holacracy-unlikely-to-work-2014-1

Reston, L. (2015, July 17). Tony Hsieh's workplace dream: Is Holacracy a big failure? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurareston/2015/07/17/tony-hsiehs-workplace-dream-is-holacracy-a-big-failure/?sh=293562d43f71