Why Did I Fire The Boss?

Well, why did I use the past tense when narrating all these? Because we fired the "Boss" and abolished the "CEO" position! Why did I do that? Indeed, in my entire life, I have never been happy with the concept of hierarchical management. I had never been able to convince myself that it was a useful and beneficial style of management. Then I believed in the absolute need to switch to a self-management approach, which totally got rid of the hierarchical management, and I was going to kick off that change myself - at the expense of my own job title and position.
 
I was highly impressed with the book Reinventing Organizations, which I read months ago on the advice of a very dear friend, and that book was probably what triggered all this. When I delved into the self-management model cited in that book, I realized that the management approach I have believed so far could only be possible with that form of management. To add to that, I was incredibly encouraged to discover a platform and its team in Turkey that strongly believes in this management model. And we joined friends on this platform (Restartlab)  to embark on a journey for becoming an autonomous (self-managed) organization. I was tremendously motivated by the confidence and support from my colleagues in the ecosystem, which made the process fun.
 
We call this unique journey the Latro Way. In our model, rather than executives, we have autonomous teams guided by our “values”, empowered by our “principles” and focusing on our “purpose”.  As part of a radical transparency policy, all data is open to everyone in this ecosystem, and teams make all decisions using this transparent data as well as shared wisdom. That is, they make their own free choices.  The great space of freedom it offers is perhaps the game changer for this system. This space not only attracts the attention of entrepreneurial, passionate individuals who want to make a difference in life but also triggers creativity and an elevated sense of responsibility within the company. This structure strongly emphasizes creativity and has started to make innovation, an indispensable element in the new world, the most powerful element of its culture.
 
While this absolutely non-bureaucratic space of freedom allows individuals to enjoy self-discovery and realize themselves freely, the collective management and decision-making mechanism improve the confidence of co-experiencing this journey as a team. This management model removes all obstacles to an individual's self-expression, inherently extending support in the personal development journey.
 
At Latro, we witness the incredible strength in shared wisdom. We believe in the synergy and the great power it offers. We witness - almost every day - the amazing new possibilities this power crafts. We personally experience and observe this radical transparency as it totally eradicates the need for hierarchical control mechanisms.  Self-management, or “collective management” as we call it, has felt so good. There is still a long way to go, but I am already very excited about this journey and I fully enjoy the process.
 
Now, every morning, I come to Latro, where I am only “the founder”, and I look for a parking space outside the building. I walk a little longer, but I enjoy entering the office after having some fresh morning air. At the reception desk, they greet me with a heartfelt “Good morning Haluk. How are you today?” Then, like everyone else, I put my bag in my locker, grab my laptop and look for a place to sit. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a chair behind a table. It may as well be a swing or a chair to stretch my feet on or a step at the amphitheater.

How do I feel compared to those old days?
 
I feel a thousand times freer, a hundred times happier, and much more excited. I feel much more like "myself". That's why I'm more creative and more useful! Just like all colleagues at Latro!