Any non-hierarchical management system is missing managers, but like any other non-managerial systems and groups, outside of the work environment, leaders are key to the success of the system. Leaders in non-managerial organizations evolve based on their actions and results. They
Hire & Onboarding
Sara joined us after a long process that includes people involvement, as her skill set and competencies for several open functions we looked for wasn’t high enough to skip people involvement. She joined us with a lot of excitement and a proven history of significant knowledge in the technical areas we looked to fill.
The team gave her two projects with more architecture focus to ensure she would have a sound understanding of our technical environment. She also had to finish three small technical projects starting from a simple one to
A month after she joined, I saw Matt and Roni,
Getting fundamental merit (technical)
“I just can’t believe that” That the words I heard from Benny as he exits a meeting room that I waited patiently to enter for our entity 3 pm meeting. “Yes, This is awesome,” said Roni that follow Benny out of the room. “She is terrific” were the words I heard from Matt as he was pushing himself out of the room. After them, I saw Sara rushing out to another meeting with a motionless face. That scared me a little, so I approach the three and ask them, “So how Sara is doing?”. Benny replied immediately. She presents us with her second technical project, and she took an approach that none of us thought about before. An approach that yields better results of what we are getting today. “
The same day my calendar alerts me to get feedback on Sara tasks, I already got an invitation for a meeting with the title “Discuss Sara projects” set up for the next day. Since I never got an invitation to discuss new Agent tasks, I looked at the invitation list. When I saw Sara’s name, I relaxed and let the next day surprise me.
When I walked into the room, all the four were already sitting in the room waiting for me. After the regular cheat chat, Benny starts the discussion. “We called you for this meeting to discuss Sara performance. Neither You nor Sara knows what we will say. As I know you”, Benny says looking at me, “I assume that you surprised”. Benny waited several seconds and kept on talking. “We know that part of us were cynical in the beginning, but
Getting advance merit (Decision making)
Over time Sara expanded her function outside of the technical entity that she
Two years after Sara joined us it was clear she already owned high merit both in her technical knowledge and in her ability to understand problems, the future and to come with decisions that survive the test of time.
With no nomination, I saw Sara leading complex projects and meetings. She didn’t ask for that, other people saw her advantage and asked her to take the lead. That was very encouraging to see her progress and the merit she owned.
Getting the highest merit (Conflict resolution)
Then something significant happened. The Women’s shoe entity declared conflict resolution process on a decision followed by an action that Man’s shoe entity took. This conflict resolution involved all the agents in those two entities, so the conflict resolution function had difficulties to find an Agent that will run the conflict resolution.
“I never saw something like that!” told me, Anna, as she rushed into my cube. I’m filling the conflict resolution function for two years, and it’s the first time that I suggested an Agent to resolve a conflict, and no one had any objection.
Around the table, I can notice Sara preparing herself for the meeting while exchanging warm smiles and hellos with different people as that entered the room.
She started the meeting precisely on time following the protocol. The objector explains why he objected to the decision and the following actions and proposed an alternative option. The Man’s entity didn’t accept the proposed alternative by the Women’s shoe, so Sara gave each participant in the meeting to convey his point of view on the decision, the conflict, and the proposed alternative. After everyone expresses their opinion, Sara gave Man’s shoe entity representative another opportunity to change his mind, but he didn’t.
Sara started the voting process, around 50 people had to cast their vote, and she gave them 5 minutes to do that. After 10 minutes Sara announced that we have results and the stress level in the room reached its peak. Just people that know Sara very good saw that something is not going well.
Sara started to announce the results. Twenty-one people vote to support the objection, two people didn’t vote, and Twenty-seven people vote against the objection. After factoring the Merit of each entity and agents, the result is a tie. 50% support and 50% vote against the objection. Here, I have to cast my vote and make the final decision. But before I’m doing that, I want to ask the representative of both the Man and Woman’s shoe entities a question in private. Sara and the two representatives left the room and came back after 15 minutes. Sara took her sit and then talk. After asking each one of the representative different question, I made my decision, that I totally feel comfortable with it. I vote to accept the objection.
The room stayed quiet, and people
Until now no one except those three knows what Sara asked and what they replay. Whatever she asked though made that two representative supporters of her decision, and Sara a new leader in our company.