4 ms·

Well, from what I understand, the hierarchy is basically entirely political / tribal. It clearly works for them, but let's not idealize it as a utopian dream w

by d23 12y ago

Well, from what I understand, the hierarchy is basically entirely political / tribal. It clearly works for them, but let's not idealize it as a utopian dream without the typical petty human inter-office struggles.

potatolicious 12y ago
Indeed, and this is something common in startups/tech companies. When someone tells you there's no hierarchy in their company, there is, you're just not high up on it and no one's bothered writing the hierarchy down for a number of reasons - most commonly for Cool Startup Culture Points or because if the hierarchy was drawn out on paper it would scare the bejeezus out of anyone watching. Unspoken or undefined hierarchies don't mean you don't have one, it just means there's a covert one that isn't subject to scrutiny or accountability. Which isn't an endorsement for documenting every minutiae of rank and hierarchy, but rather an acknowledgment that hierarchy exists regardless of how badly you want it to not exist.
- spacecowboy_lon 12y ago
  Quite I know one large tecnology company where when they had a major disaster ( a divison that may or may not have had "sevices" and "Global" in its title ) a lot of problms where sorted out in the Pub on friday afternoons.
- CodeCube 12y ago
  When I was at EA, there was an explicit mandate to not create org charts. I mean, there definitely was an org structure ... they just didn't want it visible. I never really understood why, I mean all the data was sitting there from the HR systems (I was in IT). So one day I made an org chart visualization based on said data ... just out of curiosity. My manager quickly asked me to make sure no one saw that project to avoid raising someone's ire :P
  - mikeash 12y ago
    Sounds a lot like China's internet censorship. People still know about the censored topics, but they just want to push people into talking about safer subjects. Keep the org chart hard enough to find/understand and people will discuss other things.
  - gregw134 12y ago
    Do you think lack of explicit hierarchy has had an effect on the quality of EA's games?
- arjunnarayan 12y ago
  This is on the money, and you might be interested in this essay, "the tyranny of structurelessness": http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm

by d23 12y ago

potatolicious 12y ago

Indeed, and this is something common in startups/tech companies. When someone tells you there's no hierarchy in their company, there is, you're just not high up on it and no one's bothered writing the hierarchy down for a number of reasons - most commonly for Cool Startup Culture Points or because if the hierarchy was drawn out on paper it would scare the bejeezus out of anyone watching. Unspoken or undefined hierarchies don't mean you don't have one, it just means there's a covert one that isn't subject to scrutiny or accountability. Which isn't an endorsement for documenting every minutiae of rank and hierarchy, but rather an acknowledgment that hierarchy exists regardless of how badly you want it to not exist.

spacecowboy_lon 12y ago
Quite I know one large tecnology company where when they had a major disaster ( a divison that may or may not have had "sevices" and "Global" in its title ) a lot of problms where sorted out in the Pub on friday afternoons.
CodeCube 12y ago
When I was at EA, there was an explicit mandate to not create org charts. I mean, there definitely was an org structure ... they just didn't want it visible. I never really understood why, I mean all the data was sitting there from the HR systems (I was in IT). So one day I made an org chart visualization based on said data ... just out of curiosity. My manager quickly asked me to make sure no one saw that project to avoid raising someone's ire :P
- mikeash 12y ago
  Sounds a lot like China's internet censorship. People still know about the censored topics, but they just want to push people into talking about safer subjects. Keep the org chart hard enough to find/understand and people will discuss other things.
- gregw134 12y ago
  Do you think lack of explicit hierarchy has had an effect on the quality of EA's games?
arjunnarayan 12y ago
This is on the money, and you might be interested in this essay, "the tyranny of structurelessness": http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm