From a 2-man project to Holacracy at soulbottles

When the first large delivery of 10,000 soulbottles arrived in Kreuzberg at the end of 2013 , it was clear to me and Georg that we could no longer manage it alone: ​​we needed a team. Over the next few years, our two-man project would become a company with over 40 employees .

At first, the feeling that people were working "for me" was very strange. I wanted to "work together". But even though we told everyone that over and over again, there was a certain hierarchy.

We also noticed that we kept having the same conversation:
Someone came to us with a problem or was at a decision point and wanted us to solve it or make the decision.
And often the problems were new to us and we didn't even know what the best solution was. So Georg and I usually asked: "What do you think is the best idea?". Most of the time the answers were well thought out, informed and sensible. And we said: "Well then let's try it out first!"

we need a system!

When our team grew to more than ten people in 2014, it became clear to us that we needed a structure. Luckily, the book Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux came out that year, and that was where we first heard about "Holacracy". (Admittedly, Georg read the book and then had to work hard to persuade me to do it too; luckily it is now available as a German audio book ).

The idea behind Holacracy is, among other things, to get rid of bosses and managers and let people organize themselves. That's why it's also called "self-management." The basic idea is that people who work in the topic (e.g. in marketing or logistics) often have the best ideas for structuring work and can make the best decisions. In many organizations, bosses who have to approve suggestions first are the bottleneck, and we've had so many of those (haha - you get it, because we sell bottles!).

Another central aspect of Holacracy is purpose: the whole company is geared towards a purpose. And that doesn't necessarily have to be: we make a lot of money. For us, for example, the purpose is: we want everyone to be able to act and consume in a socially and ecologically sustainable way without putting unnecessary strain on the planet.

Everything must be aligned with this common purpose. There are no rules about what exactly this should look like. This is a big game changer:

Everything that is not explicitly forbidden is allowed and everyone can decide whatever they want.

In practice, we quickly realized that you do need a few rules to work well together. Holacracy provides a reliable system for changing structures flexibly and democratically.

The consistent implementation of this purpose idea is also reflected in our ownership structure.

Of course, there are other aspects to Holacracy, such as the fact that work is divided into roles and these can be changed, switched and swapped (relatively) quickly. For example, it is not unusual for people to start in marketing and later move to logistics, or for our HR manager to also be a cook (we call him a “kitchen wizard”).

If you want a quick overview, I recommend this video . For anyone who wants to know more, I recommend the “How it Works” page from Holacracy One or, of course, the book by Laloux.

our further development

Over time, in addition to the many advantages, we also noticed things about Holacracy that are not so well resolved. The "constitution" or the set of rules is super long and written in difficult English. Don't you believe it? Then take a look here .
In addition, Holacracy in its original form is very technical and focuses more on processes than on people (this is also what Zappos says, who also use Holacracy).

Georg therefore invested a lot of time and energy into translating the constitution, simplifying it and adding the "human" elements: the result is our very own soulOS - soulful organizations system. It also contains many aspects of Nonviolent Communication according to Marshall Rosenberg, which you can find out more about here.

At soulOS, Georg has incorporated his experience with us and other companies. And we also offer workshops in this area. If you would like to know more about it, please contact us.