Dennis Wittrock: Holacracy as a catalyst for organizational and personal transformation

This episode is such a gem for all the Holacracy enthusiasts out there. It is the second time that I had a pleasure to sit down with Dennis Wittrock, one of the early pioneers of Holacracy in Europe, and discuss the intricacies of Holacracy. Dennis is a certified Holacracy Master Coach and currently works for an official Holacracy provider Xpreneurs. Apart from that, he is also partner at encode.org., a consulting company powered by Holacracy which is creating legal, social and financial foundations for self-organization. In addition, Dennis is a co-founder of Integral European Conference. And on top of that, Dennis has just published his first book called “Holacracy verstehen: Kritik – Wissenschaft – Praxis” (in German). I am grateful to Dennis for taking these 1.5 hours to delve into the most important topics covered in the book. If you want to learn more about Dennis, then visit his webpage: www.denniswittrock.com

“Holacracy can be a tremendous catalyst for transformation, where people say, ‘Oh, the way Holacracy taught me to manage my tensions as a role filler helped me with my psychological work.’ I think Brian (Robertson) cites people that have said to him, ‘What I learned in practicing Holacracy for three months surprised even my therapist.’ In Holacracy people start to relate to tensions they sense in a different way. The word ‘tension’ itself is reframed from passively having an unpleasant experience to ‘oh, I want to do something about it!’ This is the energy that a tension entails. And Holacracy helps us to frame it in a proactive way: tension is experienced when you feel that something is not as it could be and you want it to be different. And the more the distance between the current and desired state of things, the bigger the tension. Experiencing these tensions is a sign of life, actually, that you are alive. If you don’t feel the tensions, you probably are dead or in a coma. But that is not a good state for an organization to be in nor is it for you as a human being to be in. You do not want to be walked all over like a doormat. But if you feel a tension, you want to find a way to express that and resolve that. This where Holacracy becomes a driving force behind purposeful action.”– Dennis Wittrock

Listen and enjoy!