Welcome to another addition of Wondrous Words Wednesday! Visit Kathy over at Bermudaonion.net for links to interesting words. It’s a great way to exercise your brain.
My word today comes from a recent news story on an unusual way to structure companies. Normally, business lingo doesn’t interest me, but this word grabbed my attention.
holacracy– noun, from Greek hol, complete, + kratos, strength or power; a management structure based on the tasks a company needs to accomplish, rather than a standard reporting structure
Essentially, companies using a holacracy divide employees into teams, and each team assigns people to do certain tasks. The focus is on task completion, not micromanagement. However, the system is flexible so that employees aren’t always locked into a certain position, like programmer. Company processes are divided into “governance” – how the work gets down and “operations”- getting the work done.
If you’re interested in the concept, check out this article, which describes Holacracy as the hot management trend of 2014. Also, check out the Holocracy website. There’s a cool infographic I was afraid to share because of copyright issues.
Have any of you ever heard of this concept, or better yet, worked in a holacracy?
Word Nerd Workout
Use holacracy in a sentence. My example:
As my kids get older, I’d like to run my family as a holacracy, except there still would have to be a boss. Me.
Word Nerd Vocab Quiz Winner
Congratulations to the winner of my Word Nerd Vocab Quiz, Spring Edition. (drum roll…)
Amy O.
Amy, welcome to the word nerd crew! You’ve won a copy of 1100 Words You Need to Know or a Barnes & Noble gift card. Your choice! Email me at julia dot tomiak at gmail dot com to let me know your preference and mailing address.
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Julia
It wasn’t that long ago that holacracy was a new word for me too. Now I use it all the time.
I bet you do! It’s a very interesting concept. Good luck with it.
Interesting word – one I don’t think I’ll use often, though. My home does not operate as a holacracy, since I’m usually the only person interested in completing any tasks.
I don’t recall ever hearing this word – but I like it! It sounds like a family…at least, I’m really trying not to micromanage but it just ain’t easy, is it???
Definitely a new word for me today.
I’ve never heard of a holocracy, but I think I might want to work in one!
I like the sound of that word. It definitely has a ring to it 🙂 Thank you for sharing.
That’s what caught my attention! Normally, business words sound like static in my ears!
The company I work for is a matrix organization, so holocracy exists somewhat. Your sentence perfectly captures the challenges of this type of system. Even when everyone works together, you often need a leader to help keep things on track!
Great insight, Nicole. Thanks for sharing, and welcome back!
What an interesting concept. I think some of my son’s teachers tried to implement something like that a time or two but it never worked well so my sentence is, “I think team members must be motivated for the concept of holacracy to work well.” Hopefully that would be the case in the corporate world; unfortunately it’s not in public high schools.