The biggest problem with flat management is that it isn't really flat. It only means that there is no formal organizational structure. Think of it like the Wi

The biggest problem with flat management is that it isn't really flat. It only means that there is no formal organizational structure. Think of it like the Wild West: It's flat in the sense that you can get away with any behavior if you have enough influence or force. Those who are powerful end up ruling everyone else, making the system anything but flat. I'm not at all convinced this is better than a structured system that tries to ensure fairness (even if flawed). A lot of folks at Valve had very bad experiences with unfit managers (mostly at Microsoft), and I can understand why they developed a system to avoid the nastiness they experienced in the past. It sometimes works well: The unstructured teams appear to be very effective at product maintenance. The products that are already successful and have an established fan base do well with a small group of folks with an informal leader, who doesn't have to make difficult decisions to keep the fan base happy. For new products, there are lots of difficult decisions that affect the future of employees and customers, and it doesn't appear possible for a group to make these decisions together. I spent many, many hours in meetings discussing the same issues repeatedly because there was no leader to make a final decision and allow everyone to get back to work. Instead we just debated without end, causing everyone to become unfocused and demoralized. It's analysis paralysis in the worst way I've ever seen. I now understand why many social groups from primitive tribes to 1st-world nations have leaders and chiefs. It's fine to vote them out when necessary, but having visionary leadership is really critical to development and I don't see how this can be distributed among a group unless each person shares exactly the same vision, which I suppose is possible, but unlikely. I think the best solution is to build structures that greatly reward effective management. Having a good manager is a tremendous benefit to both the company and the manager's reports. Of course, this is easier said than done, but the return on investment spent in this area is really quite high.