case study

“The implementation of
holacracy in the past
six months has had a
significant impact on
our growth and the
accelerated improvement
of our results.”
Marcel Beemsterboer,
CEO Emesa BV
EMES A :
F UTURE-PROOF
WITH HOLACRACY
Dynamic operating system for the
organization lays the foundation
for future growth
W W W. R E A L I Z E . N L
+31(0)20 427 4283 P
+31(0)6 1091 0021 M
Westerstraat 187
1015 MA Amsterdam
REALIZE!
CONSCIOUS BUSINESS
When the Netherlands’ largest online publisher of travel offers was
getting bogged down by its success and the rapid growth that came with
it, CEO Marcel Beemsterboer went looking for a flexible governance
and organizational structure. In holacracy, he found a dynamic operating
system matching his ambitions for ‘Emesa 2.0’. Supported by Realize!
consultant Jeroen Maes, this structure was introduced in three phases
during the most busy and critical period of the year. During this
implementation, the employee’s present tensions served to fuel the
development of Emesa 2.0.
Emesa develops travel offer websites
Emesa B.V. was founded in 2004 and is currently the
Netherlands’ largest publisher of travel offer websites. Based
in Amsterdam, it now employs twenty people with an average
age of 26 years. Emesa publishes about a dozen titles,
including Inpakken en Wegwezen.nl (Pack up and Leave),
VakantieVeilingen.nl (Holiday Auctions), TopVakanties.nl (Top
Holidays) and the Last Minute Top 20-titles, which are available in
the Netherlands (.nl), Belgium (.be), Germany (.de), and Austria
(.at). These titles are websites which match some fifty travel
providers with (excess) capacity, with people looking for travel
offers and ‘last minutes’. Emesa’s titles draw over two million
visitors each month, generating about 200.000 travel purchases
each year. In 2008, turnover increased by 50% to €3 mln.
1
Figure 1: Inpakken en Wegwezen.nl, the Netherlands’ largest travel website
limits to growth
Emesa’s first title, Inpakken en Wegwezen.nl, found instant
success and became the Netherlands’ largest travel website
within a year. Every opportunity for further growth was seized,
and new titles sprouted like mushrooms. New hires were brought
in to handle the increasing workload. Where the organization
had been small and manageable at first, Emesa was now
starting to face new challenges. Internal communication, which
had always been informal and ad hoc, was no longer capable of
matching the speed of the growing business. In a dynamic and
competitive market, Emesa was continuously reacting to new
developments, which meant sales drove the ship, and both the
workload and employee turnover were high. Under mounting
pressure, mistakes were made, but since there was no time for
2
reflection, they were made again. Nobody
The challenge which was confronting
could really see the bigger picture any
Emesa, was that because of its explosive
longer, but the days flew by and success
growth, it was no longer able to bear the
was immediately celebrated. Emesa was
weight of its own success. The flexible
heading for a rosy future, but below the
and informal way of organizing which had
surface, the organization was showing more
been its strength, was now increasingly
and more cracks.
threatening Emesa’s future. Beemsterboer
decided to look for a way to structure the
Meanwhile, CEO Marcel Beemsterboer was
internal organization and communication: “I
consumed by making operational decisions
don’t want to ‘control things to death’, but I
and putting out fires, and he was no longer
do want clarity and responsibility, so we can
getting around to strategy and innovation.
continue to grow. But how can I achieve
Because the way things were organized
this?”.
was so unclear, everything ended up on
his desk, making him the bottleneck for the
organization. His attempts at delegating
tasks were hampered by the lack of
clarity about responsibilities, the mounting
workload and his wish to stay in control of
how things were done. Bit by bit, Emesa’s
development began to stagnate. Through
innovation network Syntens, Beemsterboer
was brought into contact with a group
of colleague entrepreneurs. Facilitated
by Realize!, these entrepreneurs started
looking into the different phases in the
growth of their businesses (see text box
‘Adizes lifecycle of organizations’). What
they found was that running a business is
not a marathon race; it’s a relay race, in
which each phase of growth comes with its
own unique problems and challenges.
3
Adizes’ lifecycle of organizations
American management thinker and consultant Dr. Ichak
Adizes distinguishes the following phases in the growth of
an organization: Courtship, Infancy, Go-Go, Adolescence
and Prime. Each of these phases is characterized by its own
unique pitfalls and challenges. In addition to these phases,
Adizes distinguishes four management roles: the Performer,
the Administrator, the
Entrepreneur
and the Integrator.
In each
phase
of the
organization’s lifecycle, a different combination of roles is required. A sound grasph of the
four roles in relation to these phases enables a
business to map out its optimal growth path.
Holacracy as dynamic operating system for
the organization
Understanding the challenges of its current
it as a breakthrough in addressing what
growth phase gave Emesa a number
management guru Gary Hamel calls the
of clear handles for breaking through to
‘resilience gap’: “The world is becoming
the next phase of its development. The
turbulent faster than organizations are
internal organization and communication
becoming resilient.” Holacracy embeds
needed to be structured in such a way
resilience and adaptive capacity in the
that they would support and enable, rather
core organizational processes. Rather
than curb Emesa’s development. There
than appointing a ‘change manager’
was a strong need for clear roles and
or announcing the next reorganization,
responsibilities, a more transparent division
the holacratic organization applies the
of labor, and a shared sense of direction
principles of feedback and dynamic steering
and priorities. Based on his positive
in each and every decision, throughout the
experience of Realize!’s facilitation of the
organization (see text box ‘Holacracy’ on
Syntens roundtable on business growth and
the next page).
development, Beemsterboer now decided
to contact them again. After exploring the
What drew Beemsterboer to the holacratic
need in a number of initial conversations,
approach, were its clear governance
Realize! consultant Jeroen Maes proposed
structure and meeting practices, and the
to organize Emesa in accordance with the
principles of dynamic steering, which would
principles of holacracy.
allow Emesa to organize itself without
being ‘controlled to death’. As a rapidly
Holacracy is a dynamic operating system
growing business, Emesa could not afford
for the organization that was developed
to end up imprisoned in a rigid and static
in the United States by Brian Robertson.
organizational structure. Moreover, as
After ‘updating’ its own operating system
CEO, Beemsterboer was expecting to be
to holacracy in 2008, Realize! identified
able to operate more freely as a result,
because (due to the clarity around roles
4
Holacracy
Holacracy is a complete operating system for the organization, embedding
flexibility and adaptive
capacity in the heart of the organization. The name refers to governance
by the ‘holarchy’, or the
natural structure of the organization itself. The holacratic operating system
consists of three elements:
• an organizational structure,
• a governance structure, and
• three dynamic steering principles.
The holacratic organizational structure consists of self-organizing circles
connected by double-links.
This double link is made up of a ‘lead link’, driving for results, and a ‘repres
entative link’ or ‘rep link’,
who guards the health of the circle. Self-organization occurs by means of
the governance structure,
which distinguishes between the operational process (getting the work
done) and the policy process
(how we organize ourselves to get the work done). Operationally, each
circle performs short daily
stand-up meetings and a weekly tactical meeting, allowing the circle membe
rs to synchronize the work
by exchanging information and taking operational decisions.
In addition to the daily stand-up and the weekly tactical meetings, the circle
assembles less frequently
(e.g. each month) for the governance meeting. This meeting centers on the
formal policy and roles and
responsibilities, which are created, changed or dropped through Integra
tive Decision-Making (see text
box ‘Never outvote the fuel gauge!’). The goal of the governance meetin
g is to address present tensions by identifying the workable way forward (see figure 2 on the next
page), in line with the three
principles of dynamic steering:
1. Present tensions are all that matter (what
is, not what if)
2. Any issue can be revisited at any time
3. The goal is a workable decision, not the
‘best’ decision (because that emerges
over time, as new information is integrated into the decision)
The combination of these three principles
serves to eliminate a lot of ‘noise’, and
helps the organization take quick, workable
decisions that are steered dynamically over
time on the basis of real data. Distinguishing between the tactical and the governance
meetings enables a more focused and effective decision-making culture, which boosts
the quality of both the operational and the
policy process.
5
Never outvote the fuel gauge!
In a holacratic organization, each individual is a
valuable ‘sensor’ with access to a unique field of
information. When in the cockpit of an airplane
the airspeed indicator, the altimeter and the voltage meter all say we’re doing fine, that doesn’t
mean we can ignore the fuel gauge. Even if just
one person raises an objection (a tangible reason
why something’s not workable), this perspective
is heard and integrated into the proposal through
an effective process, called the Integrative
Decision-Making process. The fear that this
will take too much time is based on a misconception; in practice this way of working actually saves time!
and responsibilities) he would no longer
‘steering continuously’ matched Emesa’s
have to be part of every decision. Finally,
dynamic culture and Beemsterboer’s
the principles of ‘workable solutions’ and
entrepreneurial streak.
The implementation of holacracy at Emesa
In the implementation of holacracy,
the organization, and a kick-off. During this
Realize! applied a number of leading
kick-off, Realize! consultant Jeroen Maes
principles. Most important were the three
sketched out the Emesa context using
principles of dynamic steering, which helped
the Adizes lifecycle of organizations. As a
steer the implementation continuously on
result, much of the tension and frustration
the basis of real data. This occurred in close
experienced in Emesa, was recognized as
cooperation with Beemsterboer, attending
being ‘normal’ given the (Go-Go-) phase of
to each of the three dimensions of organi-
growth in which it found itself. By making
zational change that Realize! distinguishes:
explicit the tensions in open conversation,
leadership, culture and structure. Finally,
a platform was created for a shift toward
they chose to use an experiential approach,
‘Emesa 2.0’. The kick-off resulted in two
in which the new way of working was
lists: one of them ranking the positive ten-
always first experienced, to be explained
sions (e.g. ‘concrete goals and strategy’)
only after. The implementation, which
and the other ranking the negative tensions
started in April of 2008, was split up in three
(e.g. ‘IT understaffing’) (see figure 2).
main phases:
Figure
2:
Tension
1. Identifying needs
2. Creating momentum
3. Implementing holacracy
The first phase of implementation
consisted of a number of conversations with
Beemsterboer,
interviews with
key persons in
arises
when
a
desired
situation
exerts
an
attracting
force
on
the
present
situa­
tion.
Perceived
as
a
problem,
it’s
a
negative
tension;
seen
as
an
opportunity,
it’s
a
positive
tension.
These tensions form the basis for the second implementation phase, in which rapid
6
and direct interventions are used to create
practices now would be taking a risk, but
momentum for the further development of
Emesa could not afford to wait any longer
Emesa. As one example, Maes facilitated a
either. Beemsterboer: “We had to start
number of group sessions in which the un-
creating structure rapidly in order not to go
derlying causes of the most limiting tensions
off the road during those two months.”
were exposed (using an integral analysis
based on Ken Wilber’s four quadrants). The
On June 12th, 2008, the members of the
goal of these sessions was to make
new ‘Emesa circle’ gathered for the first
present tensions explicit and to really deal
holacratic governance meeting, facilitated
with them, building trust in the core principle
by Maes. He started by outlining the goal
of holacracy: dynamic steering on the basis
and the principes of the governance meet-
of present tensions. But how should they
ing, followed by a brief overview of what the
organize themselves to really do this? This
circle could expect from the meeting: being
question ushered in the third phase of the
cut short by the facilitator, experiencing the
implementation.
first few governance meetings as frustrating, being shocked by the tensions that
The introduction of holacracy itself really
would start coming up, and taking time-outs
only started in June, when present
in order to have certain points clarified or
tensions had emerged on the basis of which
explained further. The first few governance
Emesa now needed to steer. As one of the
meetings did indeed need some getting
first licensed holacracy facilitators in
used to, but being forewarned, the circle
Europe, Maes had all the knowledge and
was able to suspend judgment and give it
skills needed to facilitate the implementa-
a shot. These meetings resulted in a set of
tion. He started by forming the first circle,
clear and explicit roles and accountabilities,
which in addition to CEO Marcel Beemster-
which were seen by all members as work-
boer included all those responsible for the
able solutions to the present tensions
various titles and support functions. At that
they were meant to
point, the summer holidays were just a few
address.
weeks away, and for Emesa’s travel offer
The day after the
websites, those two summer months were
first governance
always the busiest and most critical time of
meeting, Maes
the year. Introducing a new set of meeting
facilitated the first
7
tactical meeting of the Emesa circle. It was
up the pace. After a few days, however, he
important to have this meeting soon after
found them to be an effective way of
the governance meeting, in order for the
integrating with each other, which actually
tensions that had been addressed more
saved more time throughout the day than it
structurally and for the longer term in the
took to do them. Now all that was left was
governance meeting (e.g. by creating the
practice, practice, practice, supported by a
role ‘Human resource manager’), could
number of trainings to deepen the under-
now be addressed on the operational level
standing and skills around some key
(e.g. scheduling job interviews). During the
elements of holacracy. When a second circle
weekly tactical meetings, the circle rapidly
was formed in August around the
worked its way through the entire agenda,
marketing department, the double-linking of
resulting in a list of next actions with names.
circles could be clarified and implemented
Moreover, the lightning round at the
as well. Now, in addition to the governance
beginning of the meeting instantly created a
structure, all of the elements of the organiza-
bird’s-eye view of who was working on what
tional structure had been implemented.
for the next week. One of the other rounds
in the tactical meeting process, the metrics
Throughout the implementation, CEO
review, led to the set-up of a data room,
Marcel Beemsterboer and Realize! consultant
which visualized the most important indica-
Jeroen Maes sat down every 2 to 3 weeks for
tors and metrics used by Emesa to steer
a review meeting. In these meetings, Maes
dynamically.
would give a short overview of the most
The final element of the holacratic
recent data and indicators regarding the
governance structure, the daily stand-up
implementation (in terms of the budget, the
meetings, consists of short 10-minute
planning, the scope, etc.). On the basis of
meetings in which the circle reviews
these real data, Maes and Beemsterboer
yesterday’s and today’s work.
dynamically steered the implementation
Beemsterboer initially didn’t like the
where needed, applying the holacratic prin-
idea of having to free up time each
ciples to the contracting and implementation
morning for these
process itself. During the implementation,
meetings, for
this proved to be one of the decisive factors
which members
in order to be able to deal with tensions and
remain standing
crises as they arose, which in this rapidly-
in order to keep
growing business, they did every day.
8
results
What stands out most as a result of
improvement of our results.” To date,
implementing holacracy, is how internal
however, the implementation hasn’t lead
communication improved immediately and
to the relief of pressure he faces as CEO.
significantly. As Emesa’s employees had
Although he has started transferring some
been under double pressure from the rapid
of his roles and responsibilities (as
growth and the summer holiday rush, the
defined in the governance meetings) to
atmosphere and communication were
others, he has immediately filled the time
getting more and more strained. Creating
that was freed up, with strategy and
a clear governance structure with regular
businesss development. As a result, he has
meeting practices proved pivotal in
been able to spend time working on the
turning this around. The implementation of
new VakantieVeilingen.nl title, which is now
holacracy in the Emesa and the
growing by 30% per month, but the
Marketing circles had a direct effect on the
pressure is still high.
atmosphere. Beemsterboer: “You can see
Where before the summer, Emesa had
a clear difference between the departments
been hitting up against the limits to growth,
which are working holacratically and those
the business has now permanently broken
who aren’t (yet): more clarity and open
through to a next phase of growth. Before
communication.” He goes on to explain how
the summer, nobody really saw the bigger
commitment has increased and how people
are now taking more responsibility. Finally,
people now have a greater sense of each
other’s work areas, which has immediately
led to increased collaboration and new
business opportunities.
For Beemsterboer, the way in which people
are working together now is clearly paying
off: “The implementation of holacracy in the
past six months has had a significant impact
on our growth and the accelerated
9
“I’ve been fortunate to experience the
transformation from a poorly organized to
a transparent and well-oiled organization.
I sometimes tell old class-mates who work
in large and rigid organizations about this.
Their jaws are often on the floor as a result.
Many a person jots down a few things on
a coaster as I talk, to take to their next
weekly meeting at work.”
- Bob Jaspers Focks
Lead Topvakanties.nl
picture anymore, communication was
was keenly aware of this risk, which is why
breaking down, and employees were
he went looking for a more flexible structure
getting more and more frustrated. With the
that would do justice to Emesa’s entrepre-
new governance and organizational struc-
neurial qualities. In the holacratic operat-
ture, these tensions have largely been ad-
ing system, with its workable solutions and
dressed. In some organizations, this
principles of dynamic steering, Emesa has
professionalization can go too far and tun
found a flexible structure capable of lifting it
into a control frenzy, which in Beemster-
to new levels of success. Emesa 2.0 is now
boer’s words can completely ‘control the
future-proof!
organization to death’. From the start, he
The results of the implementation of holacracy in short:
Before
After
Governance
and
No
formal
governance
Clear
governance
structure,
communication
structure.
Communication
is
consisting
of:
reactive,
ad
hoc
and
informal.
•
Daily
stand‐up
meetings
•
Weekly
tactical
meetings
•
Monthly
governance
meetings
Communication
is
open,
structured
and
effective.
Roles
and
Unclear,
based
on
Jointly
defined
in
response
to
responsibilities
assumptions
and
unspoken
present
tensions.
Explicitly
and
expectations.
transparently
documented
in
each
circle’s
log.
Leadership
All
decisions
through
the
CEO
Defined
roles
and
responsibilities
(bottle‐neck),
little
time
for
can
now
be
transferred,
more
time
strategie
and
innovation,
for
strategy
and
innovation.
delegating
tasks
is
difficult.
Culture
and
Little
sense
of
each
other’s
Better
sense
of
each
other’s
work
collaboration
work
areas,
high
workload,
areas
and
the
bigger
picture,
more
high
employee
turnover,
and
commitment
and
collaboration,
strained
atmosphere.
more
attractive
employer,
good
atmosphere.
10
reflections
Running a business in a turbulent environ-
an implementation would likely be more of a
ment requires a dynamic operating system.
transition from an existing to a more
In contrast to many traditional organizations,
optimal, holacratic structure. An update of
resilience and continuous development are
the operating system, rather than doing a
at the heart of the holacratic enterprise. The
clean install, as was essentially the case
experience at Emesa shows that holacracy
with Emesa. How such an implementa-
works. It also raises new questions. Emesa
tion would need to be facilitated, remains a
is a relatively small organization, and before
question to be answered.
the implementation of holacracy it didn’t
have a formal governance and organiza-
A case study is incomplete if it doesn’t
tional structure. How would an implementa-
consider the challenges. One of the
tion in a larger organization turn out? Such
most important lessons learned for
Maes, is that the implementation itself
must be dynamically
steered. Despite
his attempts at
figuring out in
advance how the
implementation
Realize! consultant Jeroen Maes
“In a world that’s changing as fast, and is as
complex as ours is, only resilience can offer a
sustainable solution. Holacracy takes this and
embeds it in the heart of the organization.
My greatest insight from the work I did with
Emesa, is that this is really possible. Even in a
short time frame, during the busiest months of
the year, Emesa has managed to shift to ‘2.0’. In
my experience, the conditions for a successful
implementation are:
• A thorough analysis, by the participants
themselves, of the most present tensions – and
leveraging those to create instant momentum;
• An integral approach that addresses structure,
culture and leadership, and
• A high-trust relationship with the leader and
with the employees.”
should unfold,
along the way it
turned out that it
needed to be steered
continuously on the
basis of new
information and
present tensions.
The trust that had
developed in his
relationship with
CEO Marcel Beemsterboer proved to be
an essential condition for them to be able
to steer the implementation dynamically.
Developing trust in the holacratic operating
system is at least as important. Inevitably,
at some point in the process, tensions will
arise that are ‘hot issues’. At that point, as a
facilitator, it’s easy to get drawn into the
issue, or to decide to address this one
tension outside of holacracy. But it’s exactly
these moments which offer the greatest
transformative potential, because
Emesa CEO Marcel
Beemsterboer
“My advice to anyone who seriously
considers working with holacracy:
Prepare yourself. As a leader, you must be
willing to invest in it yourself, and to face
tensions openly. There will be
times when you doubt it all, but if
you persevere, your efforts will be
rewarded!”
addressing the tension within the
‘holacratic arena’ builds trust in the
capacity of the organization to face
tensions openly
and grow as a
result.
In 2009, Realize! will continue to contribute to the development of Emesa. In the
Although Emesa
structural dimension, work is needed to
has taken a huge
further deepen and consolidate holacracy.
step forward by
However, the main focus will be on the
implementing
development of leadership and culture as
holacracy, there
the ‘human infrastructure’ for the holacratic
is still much to
enterprise. Some of the areas in which work
be gained by
will be done include dealing with conflict,
addressing the
developing specific competencies, retaining
dimensions of
and developing talent, the CEO’s manage-
leadership and
ment style, developing a clear vision and
culture in
strategic goals, and supporting individuals
addition to
and teams in their development with coach-
structure.
ing and group work. To be continued!
12
Realize! Live
The implementation of holacracy at Emesa, as described in this case study, took place from April to
December of 2008. In order to keep sharing our experiences with holacracy and the integral organizational development of Emesa in 2009, Realize! has opened the Realize! Live-weblog. In addition
to news about Emesa and other cases, Realize! Live will also offer a behind-the-scenes look at the
underlying practices and principles. Change goes live at http://realizelive.blogspot.com!
Contact Emesa
Contact Realize!
For more information about Emesa, you
For more information about Realize!, visit
can visit the (Dutch) websites www.emesa.
www.realize.nl or contact Jeroen Maes
nl, www.inpakkenenwegwezen.nl and www.
([email protected], +31 (0) 6 4989 3189).
vakantieveilingen.nl, or contact CEO Marcel
For more information about holacracy, visit
Beemsterboer ([email protected], +31 (0)
www.holacracy.org or www.realize.nl/en/
20 56 50 600).
holacracy, or contact Diederick Janse
([email protected], +31 (0) 6 1091 0021).
Word of thanks
Finally, Realize! would like to thank the following people, without whose support the
experience on which this case study is based would not have been possible: Marcel
Beemsterboer, Nico van Dijk, Anita Markic, Bob Jaspers Focks, Chantal Balder, Dirk Jan
Koekkoek, Jart Toxopeus, Maarten de Lange, Marijntje Jansen, Marike Compagne, Pauline
Kaptein, Shirly de Haas and all other employees of Emesa B.V. We would also like to thank
Dirk van Vreeswijk and Erik van den Berg of Syntens. The implementation of holacracy at
Emesa and the writing of this case study were supported by them and the Syntens
Kansenkanon. Finally, our thanks go out Brian Robertson and Tom Thomison of
HolacracyOne, whose clarity of vision and sustained efforts help bring this into the world.
13