I’ve met dozens of people who claim to work at Flat Organizations. Sometimes they’ll say “flat plus one” or “flatish”. I’ve met even more people who work at hierarchical companies but _really_ want to make sure I know that they’re “pretty flat”. I love working at my current job, a place that’s flat plus one, except when it’s completely flat. I’m unsure, though, as to why we all care so much.
I’m not saying “it doesn’t matter”. I’m genuinely asking – what about Flat Orgs appeals to us? What makes them such a good idea? Why do people who AREN’T in flat orgs want us to believe they are? Is it mostly just fashion? Are autonomous teams the real key? Does it matter if that team is accountable to a manager or to a product owner or to a board? I want to know what we’re accomplishing with our grand experiment in flatness. I want to know what parts are functional and what are window dressing.
My title is usually something akin to “operations guy”. I answer phones, I specialize in our specific software, and I get customers to Buy In on an emotional level. I value the flat org because, frankly, it makes my job interesting. It helps me be _good_ at what I’m supposed to be doing. My CEO spent three hours this morning being bounced around tech support at Quickbooks – they’ve got a tiered and siloed support structure, so everyone was passing the buck. That’s crazy. That’s a bunch of support people—nominally (and fashionably) “customer advocates” – who are more concerned with cranking through calls and saying “not my problem” than diagnosing an issue to get a better result.
At Fisdap, we have the benefit of not having the volume of calls QB does, so that may be part of it, but our support personnel are expected to solve the issues they’re faced with. We’re empowered to vie for developer time, to present use-case information to UX, and to make business decisions on the fly. We’re not the lowest rung on the totem pole – we’re not warm bodies. We are there to do what we have to in order to help fix stuff.
Do we need to be flat to do that? No. We could have stricter rules about exactly what is allowed – a discretionary budget we can use to solve problems, like some hotels do, or a number of hours of developer time. Knowing that I’m responsible for making the _right_ call, instead of just a _permitted_ call, though, means I’m less likely to over-promise. I need to excel, not just avoid screwing up. If I’m not doing well, I’m letting down the whole company.
As a guy who started in a position that is usually expendable and replaceable, I definitely feel more valued in a flat organization. I’m not worried about stepping on toes or becoming a manager – being good at my job makes me valuable to development teams and our HR process. My daily tasks are more interesting and more visible to everyone. I feel like a huge part of my company.
What does that feel like for developers, though? Engineering and design – frankly, anyone who has ‘deliverables’—what is a flat organization bringing you? Is it empowering? Is it frustrating? Do you have more ownership or just less guidance? I know the answers are going to be “a little of all of those,” but I want to know details. Why are we flat, or why do we strive to flatness?
Flatvocate 