Organizing work for adults

Most companies are built on a simple pattern: people report to people, and decisions climb up a ladder. Sometimes that's exactly what you want. It's stable. It's clear. It's familiar.

As All Your BI started growing, that pattern didn't fit who we were becoming. We were building a team consisting of mostly senior folks who knew their domain inside out. These were people who could tell us what to do, not the other way around. That requires a system that lets them make the difficult decisions.

When we hit about 15 people, we needed to figure out what that system would look like. We could build that familiar ladder, but that didn't feel right for us. So we searched for an alternative.

How we found our way to holacracy

As we were exploring options for that system, we kept coming back to something fundamental: we want a culture of ownership. Our core value is "We own it together," which is why we are a cooperative where everyone literally owns part of the company.

But being a cooperative on paper isn't enough. We needed a management system that would create and support a culture of ownership in our daily work. Leadership is still important to set direction and priorities, but we wanted the people doing the work to have real authority over how it gets done.

That is what we looked for, and that is how we found holacracy, a system that distributes authority to the work itself rather than to job titles.

Organizing around work, not people

Organizing around work, not people means that the structure of the organization is built around what needs to get done, rather than around fixed departments and job titles.

Instead of shaping work to fit people's positions, we break the work down into clear responsibilities and outcomes. Authority sits where that work lives. When priorities shift, we can adapt quickly. Everyone knows who owns what. And the people doing the work get to decide how it gets done. Decisions don't get stuck in approval chains, so focus stays on progress rather than status.

Circles: groups formed around purpose

Traditional companies start with fixed departments like Marketing and IT. Then they squeeze work into those boxes. We do it the other way around. We form circles around specific work that needs to get done.

Each circle has a clear purpose, and they bring together whoever is needed to achieve that purpose, regardless of traditional department boundaries. Everyone knows exactly why the circle exists, what it's responsible for, and who does what within it. No endless meetings trying to figure out "whose job is this anyway?"

Some circles are permanent parts of our organization: our Delivery circle handles all client work, People & Culture focuses on hiring and development, Labs experiments with new technologies and approaches. Others are temporary and form when specific work emerges. Take Amaze weeks, for example, an innovation initiative that ran for a year and is now being absorbed into our standard delivery workflow.

Circles can also change shape. When a circle becomes too big to work effectively, it divides into smaller sub-circles, each with their own clear purpose, accountabilities, and success metrics.

Roles: individual areas of ownership

Instead of job titles, we have roles. Each circle is made up of these roles, and like circles, each role has its own clear purpose, accountabilities, decision-making authority, and success metrics.

Let's take a real example of one of our heroes. Elsewhere, he would be called a “Senior Data Engineer.” Here at All Your BI, he holds four clear roles across two circles  

In our Incubator circle, his role is Creator. His purpose is simple and concrete: turn customer requirements into high value data solutions. That means owning the full journey from raw data to dashboards that actually get used. Alongside that, he works in a second circle dedicated to a big client. Two roles focus on building applications that help the client use their global assets more intelligently. The third role is about developing new features on our Tiny Apps platform.

What's missing from his work is just as important. No vague job description that could mean anything. No surprise tasks that weren't part of his roles but somehow became his responsibility. No random requests just because he's "the data guy." His roles are explicit. They evolve over time. And he gets to shape them himself. That is what working in holacracy looks like for us.

Leadership: direction without micromanagement

You need both ownership and direction. People doing the work make decisions about their roles. Leadership sets the bigger picture.

This means that 'you own your role' doesn't mean total freedom. It means clear authority within a clear framework. But what disappears is the daily micromanagement of capable people.

In holacracy, organizational leadership focuses on where it adds most value:

• Setting objectives, strategy, and the context in which circles operate

• Holding priorities when everything feels urgent

• Keeping our purpose clear

• Creating alignment when different perspectives clash

If you're coming from a traditional leadership role, this can be a shift. You don't have the traditional people management responsibilities and authority anymore. Your influence comes more from setting clear direction, making strategic choices, and creating the right conditions for others to succeed.

The trade-offs

This way of working isn't better than other models. It's different. We chose it because it fits the work we do and the organization we want to build. And that choice comes with clear trade-offs.

The first trade-off is ownership over guidance. Our organizational model is designed around the work, not around managing people. There's no default people management. Do you want feedback? Are you ready for more responsibility? Are you thinking about a different direction? You have to ask for it, because no one else will do it for you. Support, coaching, and budget are there, but you need to take the first step.

The second trade-off is a senior-heavy environment. You'll work with people who take responsibility for quality, client value, and outcomes. That creates strong peer learning and raises everyone's game. At the same time, there's little room to hide or ease in slowly. You're expected to own your development and think beyond just your immediate tasks. If you're experienced and ready for that, it's energizing. If you need close guidance, it can be challenging.

The third trade-off is constant change. We organize around the work that needs to be done. Strategy tells us where to go, the work follows, and structure moves with it. As priorities shift, your role will evolve. Teams get reshaped and responsibilities change. This keeps us moving fast and staying relevant. The downside is you can't count on things staying the same.

We're upfront about these trade-offs. This is exactly the environment we're building: freedom, responsibility, and real impact. In return, we ask for maturity, adaptability, and ownership.

Getting started

If this system sounds appealing but unfamiliar, don't worry. Nobody is expected to arrive fluent in holacracy.

You'll go through holacracy training to learn how the system works in practice. But what we can tell you from experience is that you don't need to understand everything about holacracy before you start. You learn it by doing it. You'll be surprised how natural it feels once you start working this way.

If you're looking for a place where expertise has weight, where ownership is real, and where your career can grow in more than one direction, All Your BI might be the right fit for you.

Ready to see what's available? Have a look at the openings.