I'm not sure that the story here is that a non-hierarchical structure is impossible- but rather that just changing the org chart is not really enough. I've hea

I'm not sure that the story here is that a non-hierarchical structure is impossible- but rather that just changing the org chart is not really enough. I've heard stories of widespread sexism in 60's hippie communes, for instance. The problem is that you've still got the same old people, just in a new situation. For the change to be real you have to change the culture and the way people see things, but all these people were born and raised within the traditional hierarchies. So they end up recreating them in a different form. But that's not to say that it's impossible to really flatten the org structure- it's just going to take a lot more work and self-reflection than just printing a new employee manual.