Decisions are made rapidly and in small increments based on present understanding, and then refined continuously as new information emerges. Standard approaches to organizational management are often like driving a car by pointing at your destination and then holding the wheel rigid; dynamic steering is more like driving with your eyes open — by holding your aim in mind, continually taking in data from reality, and continually making small course corrections.

The organization is built as a holarchy of semi-autonomous, self-organizing circles. Each circle has its own aim, and has the authority and responsibility to execute, measure, and control its own processes to move towards that aim.

A lower circle is always linked to the circle above it via at least two people who belong to and take part in the decision making of both the higher circle and the lower circle. One of these links is the person with accountability for the lower-level circle’s results, and the other is a representative elected from within the lower-level circle.

Holacracy™ seeks to make explicit and clarify at a detailed level what we will count on each other for, and how these roles and accountabilities intersect with others in the organization.

Each circle holds regular operational meetings to coordinate and conduct the specific business of the circle. These meetings follow different heartbeats, such as: Daily Stand-up Meetings, Weekly Tactical Meetings, Monthly Strategic Meetings, Quarterly Strategic Meetings, and Annual Offsite Meetings.

Individuals take whatever action needs to be taken to best reach the circle’s aims. If such action falls against or outside existing policies, individuals use their best judgment and take such actions anyway, and then seek to restore any imbalance or unfairness created. Finally, individuals bring the need for such action to a governance meeting so the system can learn and adapt by evolving policies and structures in light of the new information.

Each circle meets regularly to steer how the circle goes about conducting business, by creating roles, assigning accountabilities and limits to roles, and delegating accountability and control for filling specific roles to members or sub-circles.

Policies and decisions are crafted in circle meetings by systematically integrating the core truth or value in each perspective put forth, until no one present sees additional perspectives that need to be integrated before proceeding under the then-current proposal.

People are assigned to key roles through an integrative election process after open discussion.

Holacracy™ includes many add-on practices or “modules” in addition to the core elements described above, covering most functions and aspects of human organization. These include modules for strategic planning, budgeting, compensation, personnel development, hiring &firing, team planning & analysis, team performance improvement, team retrospectives, and much more.

To create and sustain the cultural shift required, Holacracy™ draws upon numerous mental models to build shared meaning and language beyond what we’re used to in modern organizations. The component models harnessed include type models, organizational space models, developmental models, Integral theory, team dynamics models, and many more.