4 ms·

Not really a problem on the face of it. If literally everyone in a company is talented, how can that company have any hierarchy or structure without it being c

by beaner 6y ago

Not really a problem on the face of it. If literally everyone in a company is talented, how can that company have any hierarchy or structure without it being claimed that talented people frequently don't rise to the top within the company? Some talented people must be at the bottom by definition.

inetknght 6y ago
Why must a company have any hierarchy? Why "must" there be a bottom and a top?
- PopsiclePete 6y ago
  So everyone is equally empowered to make decision on the strategic direction of the company? If I got hired tomorrow at Google, I should just be able to decide to kill off Android and Chrome, yeah?
- jsty 6y ago
  Well they don't "have to", but completely non-hierarchical / flat organisations have a habit of either (1) descending into anarchy, or (2) developing hidden hierarchies.
- nnp7000 6y ago
  Because explicit hierarchy is almost always better than implicit hierarchy, which is what happens at a "self-organizing" company. A company may start off with good intentions but without some hierarchy past a certain size or tribal connections (e.g. friends and co-founders), then either: a) Progress slows to a crawl with everyone trying to reach consensus on everything. This also leads to less accountability. b) Everyone doing their own thing leading to an operational mess and constantly repeated work. c) An implicit power structure forming and working behind the scenes which then breeds an atmosphere of paranoia and stress. I'm reminded of these tweets about Valve from Richard Geldreich: https://www.reddit.com/r/valve/comments/8zmp07/former_valve_employee_tweets_his_experience_at/ https://www.reddit.com/r/valve/comments/8zmp07/former_valve_...
- perl4ever 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberated_company https://kevinmeyer.com/blog/2008/01/no-titles-excep.html "There is no organization chart There are no job titles or job descriptions No performance criteria No bonuses and no perks No regularly scheduled meetings No approval levels for capital or expense spending No goals No offices or high-walled cubicles If the peers accept the idea, then "management" is presumed to accept it – hence the need for very little management Every employee is simply expected to figure out where they fit There is one honorary job title: Plant Manager. But it’s not what you think. This facility, what amounts to a very large machine shop filled with heavy 5-axis CNC’s, has hundreds of live plants hanging from the ceiling. The Plant Manager is the person in charge of maintaining the plants."

by beaner 6y ago

inetknght 6y ago

Why must a company have any hierarchy? Why "must" there be a bottom and a top?

PopsiclePete 6y ago
So everyone is equally empowered to make decision on the strategic direction of the company? If I got hired tomorrow at Google, I should just be able to decide to kill off Android and Chrome, yeah?
jsty 6y ago
Well they don't "have to", but completely non-hierarchical / flat organisations have a habit of either (1) descending into anarchy, or (2) developing hidden hierarchies.
nnp7000 6y ago
Because explicit hierarchy is almost always better than implicit hierarchy, which is what happens at a "self-organizing" company. A company may start off with good intentions but without some hierarchy past a certain size or tribal connections (e.g. friends and co-founders), then either: a) Progress slows to a crawl with everyone trying to reach consensus on everything. This also leads to less accountability. b) Everyone doing their own thing leading to an operational mess and constantly repeated work. c) An implicit power structure forming and working behind the scenes which then breeds an atmosphere of paranoia and stress. I'm reminded of these tweets about Valve from Richard Geldreich: https://www.reddit.com/r/valve/comments/8zmp07/former_valve_employee_tweets_his_experience_at/ https://www.reddit.com/r/valve/comments/8zmp07/former_valve_...
perl4ever 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberated_company https://kevinmeyer.com/blog/2008/01/no-titles-excep.html "There is no organization chart There are no job titles or job descriptions No performance criteria No bonuses and no perks No regularly scheduled meetings No approval levels for capital or expense spending No goals No offices or high-walled cubicles If the peers accept the idea, then "management" is presumed to accept it – hence the need for very little management Every employee is simply expected to figure out where they fit There is one honorary job title: Plant Manager. But it’s not what you think. This facility, what amounts to a very large machine shop filled with heavy 5-axis CNC’s, has hundreds of live plants hanging from the ceiling. The Plant Manager is the person in charge of maintaining the plants."