Flat as in completely amorphous teams are a management anti-pattern because (as the poster above describes) cliques will crystallize anyway and a balkanised, fe

Flat as in completely amorphous teams are a management anti-pattern because (as the poster above describes) cliques will crystallize anyway and a balkanised, feudal pecking order emerges. Flat as in shallow hierarchy, though, that can work well. My preferred team size is five, with a maximum of seven, because communication patterns grow factorially. Beyond seven, the leader is overburdened by admin. Seven groups of five makes a 35-strong engineering team and can be stunningly agile and productive, especially if the duties of maintenance and support are rotated periodically.