Last week, I attended a fascinating panel at the Peter Drucker Forum:
Real-World Lessons from Hierarchy-Busting Pioneers, chaired by Michele Zanini from the Management Lab.
The speakers were
– Michael Lurie from Bayer
– Michael Y. Lee from INSEAD
– Kevin Nolan from GE Appliances, a Haier company
– Karen Massey from argenx
All of them described how their organizations replaced traditional hierarchies with networks of small, cross-functional teams focused on delivering value to internal or external customers.
What impressed me is that these transformations work at scale.
Haier and Bayer each have more than 100,000 employees. Both used to be very hierarchical. Both removed entire layers of management and replaced them with teams that are closer to the customer, faster in execution, and clearer in accountability.
Karen Massey brought an important nuance. She leads argenx, a younger company founded in 2008 that has grown to around 2,000 people. You might think starting from scratch makes it easier to avoid hierarchy. But as she explained, even when you start with a horizontal structure, the people you hire still carry the mindset of hierarchy with them. They need help to understand and value horizontal relationships instead of vertical ones.
Working with teams, I often hear that the real problems come from the levels above them.
Speaking with senior leaders, I often hear that they truly want change but feel blocked by the structure, the expectations, and the perks associated with climbing the ladder.
It becomes clear that the hierarchical ladder has its own way of protecting itself.
Which leads to one conclusion.
If you want to change the way an organization works, you may need to remove the ladder completely.
When people no longer look up or down, they start to look across.
This is where collaboration, learning, and accountability start to emerge naturally.
Here is the question I leave you with this week:
In your organization, which part of the ladder could you remove to make space for genuine collaboration?
I would be happy to read your reflections.