FLAT: How to Fuel Innovation, Speed, and Culture Without Managers

FLAT

How to Fuel Innovation, Speed, and Culture Without Managers

A Manifesto for the Self-Managed Organization

Contents

Introduction

Leaders vs. Managers

Commitment Loop

Client Letter of Commitments

Alignment

Hiring, Firing, and Compensation

A Culture of Process

The Goodie Box

Introduction

Our founding fathers didn’t aim to create a better monarchy; they sought to supplant the concept of a monarchy entirely. They wanted something more, something to replace the voice of few with the voice of all. They set the stage for what would become the most prosperous nation on the planet based on a core tenet: freedom.

Our country operates on civil (Do what you say you’re going to do) and criminal (Do no harm) laws, and within this framework we’ve thrived and prospered. We the authors believe that a company, like a country, can thrive with the same balance of freedom and structure.

We all want freedom and autonomy. We want to do the things we want to do, and we want to do them the way we feel they should be done. We want to do it our way. The ability (or lack thereof) to do so is arguably the most important factor when it comes to our workplace satisfaction. Why is it we feel that if we extend that level of freedom throughout the workplace the entire company will just fall to the ground? Surely nobody will show up for work and nothing will get done, says conventional wisdom. Letting employees dictate their own schedules, purchase resources from the company checkbook without approval, and taking unlimited vacation time is just a recipe for disaster. We must hire managers to babysit our adult workforce to keep order and productivity in line. Companies think they just can’t function without the typical command and control we’ve grown accustom to.

We first became intrigued by the concept of a flat organization after reading a piece published by the Harvard Business Review entitled, First, Let’s Fire All the Managers (http://bit.ly/1cFP0Lo). The article focuses on a tomato processing plant named Morning Star that produced $700 million in revenue in 2010 and had no managers. Zero. Not a one. At this time, we were running a company called FetchBack, an online ad-tech business. We contemplated the endeavor of making our company flat as well; however, FetchBack had recently been acquired by eBay, and we ultimately decided that it would not be feasible given our new corporate overlords.

It’s a new day and we have a new startup called adhesive.co. adhesive is a new ad-tech company in a market that moves faster and faster by the day, and an industry in which if you’re not innovating, you’ll quickly become roadkill by those who are. The conversation internally was simple: Should we do this? Is now the time to put forth the effort to