As a leader, I have been guilty of strategic non-enforcement - I realise now how this was in fact often detrimental 🙈
I like the three ways to (in part) remedy this. I feel they also have their downsides.
And I wonder if another concept from Holacracy could come in handy here as well: Individual Initiative.
The Holacracy constitution document says: "As a [member of the organisation], in some cases you are authorized to take Individual Initiative by acting beyond the authority of your Roles or by breaking rules in this Constitution."
The text then goes on to describe the ins and outs of this.
One important point the text then makes is that you need to communicate about your own failure to comply with the established rules. So, in the above example of Sarah sending a gift to the client, she would be required to openly communicate: "Hey, I know we're not supposed to do this. And I believe that sending this small token of appreciation would not be seen as bribery (which is why we have this rule) because it is so minor."
The beauty I see in the concept of Individual Initiative is that it takes a lot of enforcement burden off leaders and also allows for every member in the organisation to take responsibility for their own actions.
So, I propose to add Individual Initiative as one habit that might even prevent strategic non-enforcement to happen. What do you think?
You're spot on. I believe Individual Initiative is one of the ways that Holacracy has accounted for this phenomena because it allows "rule-breaking" in a way that won't threaten the legitimacy of the overall system. And the idea is to allow us to apply this principle even non-Holacracy contexts now that we know what function it serves.
Thanks a lot! It has been a long read 😅
As a leader, I have been guilty of strategic non-enforcement - I realise now how this was in fact often detrimental 🙈
I like the three ways to (in part) remedy this. I feel they also have their downsides.
And I wonder if another concept from Holacracy could come in handy here as well: Individual Initiative.
The Holacracy constitution document says: "As a [member of the organisation], in some cases you are authorized to take Individual Initiative by acting beyond the authority of your Roles or by breaking rules in this Constitution."
https://www.holacracy.org/constitution/5-0/#art43
The text then goes on to describe the ins and outs of this.
One important point the text then makes is that you need to communicate about your own failure to comply with the established rules. So, in the above example of Sarah sending a gift to the client, she would be required to openly communicate: "Hey, I know we're not supposed to do this. And I believe that sending this small token of appreciation would not be seen as bribery (which is why we have this rule) because it is so minor."
The beauty I see in the concept of Individual Initiative is that it takes a lot of enforcement burden off leaders and also allows for every member in the organisation to take responsibility for their own actions.
So, I propose to add Individual Initiative as one habit that might even prevent strategic non-enforcement to happen. What do you think?
You're spot on. I believe Individual Initiative is one of the ways that Holacracy has accounted for this phenomena because it allows "rule-breaking" in a way that won't threaten the legitimacy of the overall system. And the idea is to allow us to apply this principle even non-Holacracy contexts now that we know what function it serves.