Culture Fix by Colin D. Ellis

Author:Colin D. Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780730371441
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2019-07-12T13:00:00+00:00

The flatter the structure, the better

One way to help people to collaborate is to remove all barriers — perceived or real — to doing so, including the dreaded and outdated structure chart. Nothing screams command and control more than an organisational chart with a manager at the top and workers at the bottom. The surviving royal houses around the world still depend on rigid hierarchies of precedence and privilege, but such divisions have no relevance in the forward-thinking cultures of today.

Not least because a vertical hierarchy doesn’t represent how work actually takes place. Responsibility for decision making rests with groups of subcultures within the larger organisational culture. They collaborate on the best way to complete their work, then interact with other subcultures to ensure the outcomes are achieved.

Ridding oneself of a hierarchical view of people is an effective way to start the process of moving towards a forward-thinking, ever-evolving culture. This is something Spotify identified early in their cultural journey, when they moved to smaller, empowered teams that took full responsibility for their work and outcomes. These ‘Squads’, as they are known, co-locate, agree on their cultural principles, choose the methods they’ll use to deliver, and are trusted to define their own goals and outcomes.

In these non-hierarchical, ‘self-organising’ teams, different people step up to facilitate discussions and lead work as required. The model below illustrates the shift from structured to flexible leadership.

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