I know this is probably an unpopular idea around here, but I generally think "self-assigned" teams are a terrible idea. Without a top-level roadmap to guide pr

I know this is probably an unpopular idea around here, but I generally think "self-assigned" teams are a terrible idea. Without a top-level roadmap to guide progress a company would quickly devolve into an uncoordinated mess. Sure, it can birth some really innovative gems from a very large organization. That's the exception rather than the rule, though. This kind of "teams making decisions" structure nearly killed Sony when they started infighting and reinventing wheels. Google, IMO, succeeds in spite of rather than because of this structure at this point, and only because of their ridiculously high hiring bar. There is a middle ground between Google and, say, Lockheed where teams are given a general direction to pull to keep them organized and working towards the company's goals but are otherwise free to determine how to accomplish those goals on their own.