I find it's better to have a culture where everyone holds each other accountable on a continuous basis, rather than a privileged few lording over the rest perio

I find it's better to have a culture where everyone holds each other accountable on a continuous basis, rather than a privileged few lording over the rest periodically. See: Valve, Github, WL Gore and Associates Not that you can't run a company that way, but you start to introduce too much overhead for too little gain, and you start to look like the traditional, highly hierarchical, command-and-control companies. Once you start down that path, it's really, really difficult to come back.