> The up-front costs associated with shifting from a traditional structure to any other structure can be pretty massive; holacracy is no exception to that rule.

> The up-front costs associated with shifting from a traditional structure to any other structure can be pretty massive; holacracy is no exception to that rule. Bigwigs from the official holacracy company (HolacracyOne) came onsite to give talks and run the first several meetings, which cost a decent chunk of change as well as taking time out of a busy startup's day. Teams and roles needed to be defined using the terminology and mechanics of holacracy. There were impacts here and there to scheduling, to communication systems, and to getting things done in general. Eventually, however, the ramp-up phase ended and we were able to experience holacracy in full. My "Management Consulting Claptrap" red-flag just went up... > A natural question to ask at this point is "What about backing out of holacracy?", to which I'd reply that it's easier said than done. Since a not-insignificant amount of effort goes into the initial setup, it's easy to fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy. The rationalization is reinforced by HolacracyOne, who clearly stated to us that most companies won't really be fully operational as holacratic organizations for at least six months. Actually, the tenets of holacracy itself reinforce the idea that you just have to keep pushing forward no matter how weird it may feel: the first setup step effectively tears down a bunch of preconceptions about corporate structure, and you won't really feel like you've gotten to the point where you can critique holacracy until you rebuild that structure. ...And this makes it sound like a cult - the same tactics as convincing people about The One True Path(tm)