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Ruben Timmerman

Ruben Timmerman
The Trusting People Paradox of self-management

The Trusting People Paradox of self-management

A: people can’t be trusted, they always selfishly look out for themselves. B: people can be trusted, we’re wired to altruistically help…

By Ruben Timmerman 16 Jan 2023
Startup therapy: fix a blow to your momentum by using tension as fuel

Startup therapy: fix a blow to your momentum by using tension as fuel

As a startup founder, you’ve either been there or will soon: a slump in your growth. It can triggered by growing too fast, a key team…

By Ruben Timmerman 08 Nov 2022

No more Policies, Processes and Rules in self-management with Holacracy?

When your colleagues all self-manage, who makes sure everybody adheres to certain rules? Is there some magic that does not require optimal…

By Ruben Timmerman 28 Nov 2017

Springest communication Rules of Engagement in Holacracy

This is a copy of our internal Rules of Engagement, updated when our Communication Clarity role updates them internally in our helpdesk…

By Ruben Timmerman 28 Nov 2017
Cultural observations on self-management and Holacracy in China

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…

By Ruben Timmerman 08 Nov 2017
Measuring happiness as a KPI at a self-managing organisation

Measuring happiness as a KPI at a self-managing organisation

At my company Springest, happiness is not a goal in itself. Long term productivity is, and I believe one leads to the other. We do measure…

By Ruben Timmerman 26 Oct 2017

Using OKRs for Holacracy strategy and targets

Strategy is of course a keystone of management, so it’s also important in the organisational operating system Holacracy. Even more so…

By Ruben Timmerman 24 Aug 2016

Why you don’t understand Holacracy

TL;DR: because you think it’s a solution in itself, while it’s merely a framework for organizations to create them in an efficient and…

By Ruben Timmerman 26 Mar 2016

Medium drops Holacracy: how we dealt with their challenges at Springest in the past 3 years

Last week, Andy Doyle from Medium announced they won’t use Holacracy anymore to run their company. It’s great that such a visible company…

By Ruben Timmerman 07 Mar 2016
Why the Holacracy meeting process makes you wonder how other companies don’t implode

Why the Holacracy meeting process makes you wonder how other companies don’t implode

The past months we have invited people from outside our company to join our Holacracy tactical and governance meetings. Those meetings are…

By Ruben Timmerman 03 Jul 2015
Productive transparency with GTD, Holacracy and Asana — a guide through my setup

Productive transparency with GTD, Holacracy and Asana — a guide through my setup

How our 20 person startup hacked Asana to support our Holacracy and Getting Things Done methods.

By Ruben Timmerman 13 Apr 2015
Why we’re adopting Holacracy as our organisational operating system at Springest

Why we’re adopting Holacracy as our organisational operating system at Springest

What does it really do for our 32 person startup?

By Ruben Timmerman 23 Sep 2014
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Ruben Timmerman's blog
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Ruben Timmerman's blog

Reflections on 15+ years of organization evolution, productivity, Holacracy and startups