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

By chad little

“Management did not emanate from nature, someone invented it. Management is great if you want compliance, but if you want engagement, self-direction is better.” Dan Pink, author of Drive, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

The world today creates more and more urgency for companies to move faster, adapt quicker, and innovate higher. Doing so is required just to stay alive, and multi-layered organizations are at a disadvantage based on their bloated structure alone.

In this free eBook, learn how a progressive new startup is changing the way companies get things done by eliminating the traditional management structure and providing a new level of autonomy for it’s employees. While others are still operating in the last century’s paradigm, adhesive.co is laying the groundwork for how companies must operate in today’s marketplace.

With near-ubiquitous access to technology, the new battle that our country faces to remain a competitive force hinges on creativity and innovation. Today’s most creative and innovative companies recognize this and have made a conscious effort to focus their cultures on freedom and choice as a means of fostering innovation. The practice of creating and operating a flat organization elevates these core values above all else by empowering employees, rather than restricting them with messy rules and hierarchy.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast!” Peter Drucker

• Language: English
• Publisher: chad little
• Release date: Mar 21, 2014

Book preview

FLAT cover.jpg

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