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Archive's catchpas are useless and absurd so I will comment without reading the article. Flat structures aren't flat. When they work, there is always a single
by motohagiography 3y ago
Archive's catchpas are useless and absurd so I will comment without reading the article.
Flat structures aren't flat. When they work, there is always a single strong leader who everyone defers to in a hub/spoke pattern, and what makes the person exceptional is they can get people to work together. The necessary condition is ownership.
Where I have seen most flat structures fail is the moment when either that leader leaves and the ensuing vaccuum leaves a power struggle to re-establish an order, or the central person's role is diluted by another source of power like a marquee customer account where someone else emerges and becomes the cargo cult broker of, "well I'm not responsible, but the customer wants X, are you going to argue with the invisible customer?"
A successful flat org has a concept of "us," and the failed ones use the concept of "you." The worst pattern is when someone is granted some positional authority but has zero charisma, vision, or ownership, and delcares a flat organization, and then just uses it as a reason to micromanage and veto, while enjoying the attention of people having to vie for their mercurial approval. These kind of managers are just avoiding ownership and responsibility. The incompetent neglect creates a power struggle on the team that rewards the worst in people, and you get a low trust, sabotaging, gossipy, hyper political environment.
High ownership is the quality you are probably looking for, a flat organization is probably just low responsibility management.
- tbrownaw 3y ago> Archive's catchpas are useless and absurd so I will comment without reading the article. Set reader mode and refresh. Or at least that seems to work for me, on Firefox on both mobile and desktop.
- rndmnflnce 3y agoThis is it. Flat structures aren't totally flat and there is some depth, but it's all about 'us' and there is strong leadership and ownership. People can wear multiple hats to get things done. Essentially, everyone is 'on the same page' for the better of the business.
- marcinzm 3y ago>Essentially, everyone is 'on the same page' for the better of the business. So they're essentially unworkable as a company gets beyond maybe 50-100 individuals as that is maximum for a unified human social group taking into account that people have social connections outside of work as well?
- Terretta 3y ago> Archive's catchpas are useless and absurd so I will comment without reading the article. As a paid subscriber, I used the tool to share w/o paywall in the link I posted to HN, to avoid need for archive.is link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/05/business/flat-structure-companies.html?unlocked_article_code=Kus9ECMdkTr94EbFwwy5G_6-TyK-yZ5S5uOzkAkf3I46KGcWvg26kMXOcq5LhBuAa43InPkqpwZfmIEmAXpC_todD8iLCOchqKd0YRBLkOZQppO7r6LxgGt2N6m2-gF22nTQAacD8mB3Y-ReIFdrBsR4HyVk5Yx25nbn8MXn6JKUvi5628Sfh6HFZrV5-lOZpfJME4338sk0kMk3AvRa5GbGWLsnkAGj-BxdsUeshbw8Df077_HSIk1Q65h4nvM0UqvivaT2kDiO1liIApQUVmOtoEE-xrIR8Kza4CHJIw8cJCcboSLTojEOFzIxFtvNjMKlP-M7IomgE04cHhD4XJxUdA&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/05/business/flat-structure-c... It seems HN stripped that, sorry.
- jeffybefffy519 3y agoIve seen flat structures also fail to be able to actively address issues. For example the leader has decided they actively dont want hierarchy and the things they see it bringing with such ability to sack low performers, deal with hr issues, define company policies for the most basic things, etc.