Tired of traditional hierarchy, a growing number of new and established companies are trying to create organizations with no-structure structures. These innovative “open allocation management structures” go by names like Management 3.0, Agile, and the increasingly popular Holacracy.
All of these organizational design trends are attempting to answer the questions –
- How do organizations and the people that lead them build and nurture relationships?
- How do we ensure that individuals thrive through an interrelated and value additive series of connections?
- How do we neutralize the negatives of necessary structure such as rank, hierarchy, and the abuse of the power associated with them?
- How do we expand accessibility and contribution, and create values at the seams?
Organizations that THRIVE increasingly find a way to foster community and build actual systems and structures that enable employees to be “known.” Being known means being seen as both a part of something larger than themselves and having their individual impact highlighted. Far from being an impediment to relationship, a purposeful structure and managed horizontal set of seams (between people and functions) can both increase value to the company and deepen connection between people. Good structure, and even hierarchy, is not about bureaucracy but about enabling the relationships that create additive contributions, both within people and among the building blocks of an organization.
These trends in management structure are essentially the age-old concept of building a flatter matrix structure that creates team-based organizations. These organizations are more efficient at decision-making and at connecting people to the work they do rather than the functional discipline they come from.
However, in many larger organizations today these matrix structures are often put in place solely for the purpose of lowering costs. Additionally, placement in a complicated matrix structure is often seen as status-related and not role-based. Without building the supporting relationships between the seams instead of relying on a set of rigid rules or a power structure to make them work, employees can feel stifled rather than empowered by such complex systems, which often collapse under their own weight.
Done correctly, however, these horizontal organizations can put the power in the hands of employees and increase their connection to each other and an organization’s ability to THRIVE. Employees get the chance to more easily learn a diverse set of skills from each other and the work they contribute. Their ability to see work and projects end to end as opposed to fragmented or compartmentalized opens them up to a world of possibilities. This exposure, in turn, creates hope and passion for those they work with and the value they can create. A thriving leader feels connected to his/her colleagues and the organization’s leaders, and structure can either enable or neuter these connections.
Structures that enable employees to THRIVE through relationships ask the following questions and purposefully build them into the formal fabric:
- What is the unique value we create at the intersection of our respective boundaries that could not be created by any one of us individually?
- What are the risks and implications of failing to deliver this value consistently over time?What are the competitive advantages of delivering and even increasing this value consistently over time?
- In the present time, what conditions that exist in our relationships negatively impact effectiveness?
- What would have to change in our relationships to more consistently deliver and increase the value we create?
- What commitments to change will we make to each other in order to enable these changes?
- What value and results should we see (near term and long term) because of these changes?
So call it whatever you want – Holacracy, Structureless Structure, Management 5.0 – it doesn’t matter. What is important is that you provide a formal structure where employees feel known, can add value, and are deeply connected to the vision for your organization.