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... "Help, we have no bosses!
We have been self-organized at Great Place To Work Switzerland for six years. But what exactly does that mean? Is it chaos and anarchy? How did this come about in the first place? And what exactly does cooperation look like here?"...
In our last article we told you why we at Great Place To Work Switzerland dared to take the leap into self-organization - and how we did it.
We would now like to show you what this means in concrete terms. How do we make decisions? How do our teams work together? How does leadership work without managers? And what principles are behind our daily work?
We look forward to sharing many exciting insights and learnings with you.
You don't know our Circles yet and "CCC" sounds more like a typo than a committee that ensures cross-Circle communication? -> Click here for part 1!
To everyone else: Welcome back and let's go!
How we work together
Effective collaboration is crucial to the success of our company. Our way of working is based on clear principles and values that determine our daily actions and cooperation. Personal responsibility is particularly important in our set-up. And so that we can make well-founded decisions, relevant information can be viewed transparently. For example, everyone has access to business figures (income and expenditure, including wage costs), contracts with suppliers, actively participates in determining the business strategy, etc.
Let's take a look at the different aspects to understand how they interact.
The understanding of roles
At Great Place To Work Switzerland, we don't think in terms of traditional functions or hierarchies, but in terms of flexible roles that enable us to work agilely and effectively. A person can hold or take on different roles, depending on their needs, skills and interests.
We manage ourselves and are responsible for the conscientious and meaningful execution of the roles and tasks we have taken on. This self-organization applies both to individual roles and to the roles within our Circles, the self-organized teams. It is crucial that we act on our own responsibility and do not rely on instructions "from above". Instead, we actively take our tasks into our own hands and work independently to fulfill them.
To ensure that we have a common understanding of roles, we have defined each role and recorded its purpose, responsibilities and decision-making powers in writing. A clear understanding of roles enables us to work in an efficient and focused manner and ensures a clear structure and accountability within our team.
By ensuring that everyone knows their own role and the role(s) of their colleagues, we know who is responsible for what and what influence this has on the achievement of our strategic goals.
A few principles:
- No one should have too many roles to ensure a balanced workload.
- Everyone should feel secure and motivated in their role. As a result, team members will flourish and feel empowered to make decisions.
- A role is based on competence, preferences and suitable resources. It is not "cherry picking"!
- Even if team members feel comfortable in their roles, they know they can ask for advice if they feel uncomfortable making a decision.
Example: Circle Coordinator
Mission: To ensure that internal processes are adhered to and that communication within and between Circles functions smoothly.
The Circle Coordinator is responsible for the organization of Circle meetings and the coordination of resources as well as the distribution of tasks and projects in the respective Circle. He/she acts as an interface to the other Circles and represents his/her own Circle in the Cross-Circle Council (CCC). He/she defines and improves processes together with the other Circle members. The Circle Coordinator changes every year.
Guiding Principles
In this section, we take a closer look at how we integrate the aspects of successful collaboration into our day-to-day work and why they are so crucial to the success of our teams.
These are our guiding principles for successful cooperation:
1. personal responsibility and entrepreneurship
Especially in an environment without formal hierarchies, a high degree of (personal) responsibility is crucial, as it enables us to work flexibly, effectively and independently.
Ownership means that we actively take care of the planning and implementation of our tasks. We are not only responsible for the implementation of our own tasks, but also for resource planning, communication with stakeholders and coordination with other team members. Personal responsibility means proactively approaching colleagues with questions, informing them early on, actively asking for support if we are unable to meet deadlines, making our own decisions and bearing the consequences.
Every employee is encouraged to think and act entrepreneurially. We must be aware that our actions have a direct impact on the success of the team and that we must therefore be able to act independently and make decisions that contribute to the overall success. By fostering an entrepreneurial spirit, we strengthen team dynamics and create an environment in which everyone is encouraged to actively contribute and take responsibility.
And we are convinced that every team member has the ability to act like an entrepreneur - regardless of age, experience or area of expertise.
We even go one step further: with us, every team member has the opportunity to become a co-owner. In this way, we not only take responsibility for the fulfillment of our tasks, but also have a personal interest in the long-term success of the company.
And in fact, over 50% of our employees are now also co-owners of Great Place To Work Switzerland.
2. transparency
"Information, which has often been used as a tool of power, becomes a tool that promotes collective intelligence and responsibility through transparency."
Patrick Mollet, co-owner and consultant
We need access to all relevant information so that we can act entrepreneurially. Regardless of whether it concerns decisions, business figures, projects or strategies.
Transparency creates trust, promotes cooperation and motivation. Transparency enables everyone to understand the big picture, actively involve employees in decision-making processes and make their own contribution.
At Great Place To Work Switzerland, we have been Absolute transparency (incl. wage transparency)!
In other words, with we all have access to all information (with the exception of particularly sensitive employee information). If I am interested in how we use our budget on track I can find the information on our cloud. If I want to look up what we decided in the 2022 strategy workshop, I can find the information on our cloud.
Our strategic goals and plans are visible to everyone so that every employee understands where the company is heading in the long term and how their own tasks contribute to this. The same applies to financial data such as turnover, profit, costs, budgets and salaries. Or for vacancies to be filled (including where we are in the recruitment process). To name just a few examples.
How do we implement transparency in practice? And how can we become more transparent as a company? The 30-minute deep dive by Patrick Mollet and Tobias Véron is available here -> Radical transparency: What it brings and how companies can be more transparent
3. communication
The flood of information that comes with absolute transparency should not be underestimated.
We've all been there: you come back to the office from vacation and are inundated with emails. Now imagine receiving all the information, from the whole company, from every department & from every person. This makes it all the more important to set up the right channels for the exchange of information and communication.
So how do we ensure an effective exchange of information and functioning internal communication?
We work with different (digital) tools for collaboration and the exchange of information: There are the classic Teams channels, in which information is proactively shared in the right place with the associated importance, there are "info slots" in meetings and then there is information that is not actively shared. The latter often involves documentation of processes or decisions, whereby everyone can inform themselves if they deem it necessary.
Internal communication: Teams Channels
Our internal communication takes place via teams. We have different channels that we use in different ways. For example, each Circle has its own channel in which Circle-relevant information is shared. Of course, everyone has access to all channels.
We also have a cross-circle "must-know" channel. This is where we share information that affects the entire company. And we assume that everyone knows about every piece of information shared here (and derives the resulting to-do's where necessary).
And then, of course, we have a few "fun" channels where we announce internal aperitifs or share funny memes 😀
We mainly use Outlook with customers and other external parties.
Project Management & Documentation: ClickUp
We use ClickUp for internal and external project management and for the documentation of meetings, processes and decisions.
We are all responsible for documenting things in ClickUp and sharing them with the team. Each document has a "page owner". This person is responsible for updating information and informing about adjustments.
Documents: Cloud
We store all our documents, presentations, pitches, contracts, designs and everything else in our cloud. To ensure that everyone can find the final version of a document, there are "rules" for correct labeling.
As part of our absolute transparency, everyone has access to all folders.
Cross-circle communication: Cross-Circle Council (CCC)
We ensure cross-circle communication with the Cross-Circle Council.
Once a month, all Circle Coordinators meet and discuss what is happening in the respective Circles that could influence one of the other Circles.
Sometimes, however, it is simply a matter of sounding out an idea and obtaining feedback that includes the perspectives of all Circles. That way, we quickly know if we may not have taken a perspective into account.
Meetings: Circle Meetings and All Hands
The Circles decide for themselves how often they exchange information "formally" in the form of team meetings. Once a month, we have an All Hands meeting with all employees.
There is a specific structure for this (Information Only / To discuss / To Decide). Successful meetings depend on all participants being prepared, actively participating and contributing to decisions. To ensure that everyone has enough time to prepare, topics must be entered in the meeting notes at least 24 hours in advance (if something is to be decided, at least 48 hours in advance).
You can find out exactly how we work with individual tools and what we can improve in our Podcast episode on the topic of transparency.
Leadership without managers?
In a traditional company, leadership is often in the hands of managers with certain titles and positions. But (how) does leadership work without managers?
We show you how we make decisions and manage our organization without managers.
Competence-based leadership
No hierarchy does not mean no leadership. At Great Place To Work Switzerland, we adhere to a competency-based leadership model and emphasize that everyone can take on additional responsibility and make decisions based on their skills and interests.
In our understanding, agile is not synonymous with a lack of leadership. We have found that a competency-based management model harmonizes well with agile principles. It enables us to react flexibly to changes and make decisions based on expertise and experience.
In an agile context, taking responsibility means that every team member has the opportunity to take on additional responsibility, depending on their skills and interests.
Some team members can take ownership and lead in certain areas, while others focus on their specialized tasks. This flexible model allows everyone to contribute to the success of the team in their own way and creates a dynamic working environment that benefits from diverse skills and perspectives.
In traditional organizations, it is ultimately the manager who decides, as they also bear the responsibility. But how does this work in a self-organized company?
Consent-based Decision Making:
Sometimes decisions affect the entire company and have to be supported by everyone. How can we make efficient decisions in these cases?
At Great Place To Work Switzerland, we rely on a decision-making model based on consent.
What is consent-based decision-making?
Based on our understanding of our role and competence-based leadership, our decisions are based on the "consent" principle. Consent-based decision-making is about making a decision that is acceptable to everyone involved, even if not everyone has to agree unreservedly. This allows us to make faster and more flexible decisions without lengthy discussions or disagreements.
In concrete terms, our process looks like this:
We have a few principles for the decision-making process:
- We trust the topic owner and assume that they know the most about the topic.
- We assume that the topic owner has involved all relevant stakeholders.
- We ensure that all opinions, feedback and enrichments are heard and formulate a final "Proposal for Decision".
- We take a "save enough to try" approach.
Advantages and disadvantages of agility: the two sides of the coin
Agility and the elimination of hierarchies have brought numerous advantages for us. The flexibility and adaptability achieved through the distribution of "powers" to smaller circles enables us to act very quickly and reduce bureaucratic hurdles. Well-prepared ideas can be presented, discussed, accepted and implemented within a meeting on the same day.
In addition, the decentralized nature of decision-making promotes a sense of personal responsibility and commitment among team members. Each and every one of us can have a say, participate in decision-making and make a tangible contribution.
Nevertheless, there is also a flip side to the coin, especially with the constant and rapid growth we are currently dealing with.
The lack of a clear hierarchy can lead to problems in ensuring clear responsibilities and accountabilities. In addition, traditional leadership roles are less clearly defined in a less hierarchical structure, making it important for individuals to proactively take on leadership roles. This ambiguity can be challenging for those who prefer clear hierarchies.
Alignment with the overarching corporate strategy can be more nuanced in an agile structure and requires a delicate balance between decentralized decision-making and a coherent vision.
Joining a self-organized organization can be challenging for new employees as they have to adapt to a new working environment and a new way of working. To make this transition easier, we have revised our onboarding programme and tailored it specifically to the needs of newcomers to our organization.
Our onboarding programme focuses not only on imparting specialist knowledge and skills, but also on introducing employees to our organizational structure and working methods. New employees are given a comprehensive insight into our Circle structure, our decision-making processes and our cultural values to help them get off to a good start in their new working environment. Through targeted buddy programmes, we help them to settle in quickly and find their feet in our self-organized environment.
Sounds exciting? We would be happy to help you take the first steps towards transparency and self-organization:
