Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

The challenge for companies that do not have the creative freedom to begin at square one is how do we create that same culture of innovation? How do we build an environment where we are comfortable at chipping away the things that no longer add value?

How many systems would we switch off as opposed to trying to integrate them with the new? How much complexity in our processes could we design out to create something that is elegant and simple?

For me, this feels very different from how most large organizations function. But if we are going to create magnificent works of art within our day-to-day working lives, we need to embrace the concept of curation – of removing the superfluous and keeping only that which is beautiful in its simplicity....

But Medium isn’t just taking a revolutionary approach to digital publishing — it’s changing the way companies operate too. As one of the fiercest and most faithful adopters of Holacracy – a radical new theory of corporate structure — Medium is experimenting with a completely management-free environment that’s laser focused on getting things done. Stirman couldn’t be more thrilled with the results: the freedom, the momentum, the productivity are all unparalleled, he says.

But companies don’t have to go all-in on Holacracy to reap the benefits. If his transition from Twitter to Medium taught him anything, there are always more tactics to try to make things work better. Below, he shares his lessons from taking the leap....