PHILADELPHIA – The CEO relinquishes power, changes compensation to a "badge" system of rewards for skills and has "governance" sessions in place of daily meetings.
Welcome to the trademarked workplace known as Holacracy.
Zappos.com founder Tony Hsieh embraced the Holacracy ethic so deeply that earlier this year the online shoe company executive asked all employees to adopt it or leave with pay.
And 86 percent of Zappos employees stayed. Notable departures included the company's chief technology officer; vice presidents of customer service, human resources and recruiting; and Alexis Gonzales-Black, who co-led the transition to Holacracy.
Gonzales-Black, who left Zappos to start her own company, is still quoted heavily in concept founder Brian Robertson's book "Holacracy" (Henry Holt, 2015), released in early June.
Holacracy prescribes a set of rules that discards hierarchy: There are no CEOs, only circles and roles. But a free-for-all workplace? Not a chance. Holacracy has more rules, not fewer, and each employee has more autonomy and accountability, said Robertson, a successful software engineer and former chief executive himself (Philadelphia's Ternary Software Inc.) who now works out of a home office.
"It is not a democracy," said Robertson, 36, who dropped out of high school and college. He and his wife, Alexia Bowers, built a castle-style house in the woods about an hour's drive west of Philadelphia, several thousand square feet including a fantasy mining shaft leading to guest bedrooms.
In Holacracy, "there are rules and boundaries; there are referees, to use a sports metaphor," he said.