Even in a flat organization, some people are good at organizing other folks and getting things done that way, while others are good at sitting down by themselve

Even in a flat organization, some people are good at organizing other folks and getting things done that way, while others are good at sitting down by themselves and cranking stuff out. I'd say the needle is much farther towards "communication and cooperation" (as opposed to "unopinionated worker drone") than in a hierarchy, but the spread of abilities is still there. The nice thing about being truly flat is that there's no boss to get rid of if they're not working out. You just decide not to work with them. [Flat isn't totally wonderful and there are still issues with it which I don't care to get into right now.]