Cultural observations on self-management and Holacracy in China
I had no expectations coming to Shanghai to speak on Holacracy, at The First China Organizational Evolution Forum. I was maybe too busy with day to day business, considering my trip something exotic that I just had to experience. Talking to a few dozen Chinese people, I realise I was right, and wrong. Right, because I was open to be surprised and had no judgment. Wrong, because the cliche is true: China is now moving so fast that you should pay close attention.
Important disclaimer: I spoke to maybe 50 people, who represented many diverse companies. From Alibaba-big (60.000 employees) to startups of a few hundred people that its founder would call small. People interested in these topics are no doubt the forerunners, and I will just generalise them and say “they, the Chinese” because I care for the potential and not the correctness :)
They’re ready to be vulnerable
I heard some founders of “small” Chinese tech-companies talk very openly about discovering their personal weaknesses. Small company means 250 or 800 employees here, by the way. I felt extra humble, with 50 Springest colleagues running Holacracy in the past 5+ years.
In a panel on personal leadership as “ex-CEO’s” these founders shared their fears of not able to inspire their employees to take initiative. And the risk they run if they don’t trust their employees to make decisions. At the same time acknowledging their tendency to command their troops*, because we have businesses to run and goals to achieve.
Over lunch I talked to one founder extensively through 2 Chinese — English interpreting colleagues, about his trouble to motivate employees in a non-extrinsic way, about his doubts about Lead Links “demanding” overwork from their circle members, etc. I was really impressed with his openness and willingness to let his ego not get in the way.
They’re moving (too) fast
On every slide from every speaker where there was a model with “rules” to follow, half of the crowd got out their phones to make a picture. Likely to WeChat it back to their colleagues to start learning from those principles right away. As if one slide can hold the solution, simply to be implemented to quickly beat the competition. I often felt that they are so eager to quickly adopt, that they do it before really understanding. I’m not even sure this is a problem though: they might just get enough of the methods to combine their execution power with a bit more efficiency so that they’ll get there sooner than those who patiently figure out all the nuances of self organising methodologies.
Let’s not forget we’re still at the beginning anyway. The current systems are not “done”, nor will they ever be. So understanding everything might be a paradox of self-management: to study it very thoroughly means falling in the same predict and control trap that we try so hard to avoid.
We’re different but also very similar
In more than a few discussions, we turned to human nature versus culture. Yes, culture can be in the way of adopting self organisation. The Netherlands is showing to be a more fertile ground for new Holacracy adoptions than even Germany and the United States. Yes, China is much more anchored to centralised management and very strong top down leadership.
But people are just as resourceful, can be just as driven by a purpose or a dream. Many employees are at least as disengaged as their Western counterparts. And like all evolved monkeys, we love to feel safe, be in a group and follow a strong leader. Their leaders recognise these human traits and want to address them to increase the potential of their organisation.
It will all converge
We all have to figure out how to organise ourselves in ways that make organisations last. Hopefully, that way will also be healthy for humans. The west can learn from China just as much as they can learn from us. In any case, our companies and cultures will converge naturally because the world is still getting smaller (or was it more flat?). So we will have to learn from each other and I’m very happy to have had the opportunity.
*Military style is mentioned often as the “old way”, top down. But the army is actually going in the direction of self-organisation, because especially on the battlefield there is no time to wait for decisions from above.
