Culture of Success Series: The Shape of Things To Come

Each company has its own culture, whether by accident or by design. Cultures become effective when they maximize opportunities for the employees to grow and improve skills, leading them to feel valued, respected, and that there is a place for them both now and in the future.

A majority of companies attempt to provide this proverbial carrot with a hierarchical ladder for employees to climb. It makes sense on paper: here is the path to success as defined within narrow constricts such as title, salary, and responsibilities.

The thing is, that ladder can only hold so many people heading in the same direction at the same time. Eventually, it gets too crowded, especially when someone doesn’t want to move.

At The Alias Group, we sought to avoid the circumstances which eventually cause people to go look for another, less crowded ladder to climb or one that offers a start at a higher rung. We asked ourselves, how do we prevent this potentially toxic situation?

We knocked the ladder down.

Does going flat work for every company? No. Could it work for your company? Possibly. Could you take some of the benefits we’ve experienced and figure out how to tease them out in your business to reap the same or even better rewards? Absolutely! So what are those rewards?

Going flat allowed for:

• More opportunities for broader and deeper growth

• Abolishing useless middle manager positions

• Autonomy and flexibility

• Increased collaboration and cooperation

• Elimination of the “Us vs. Them/ Me or Him” mentality regarding growth.

• Creative growth opportunities for the future

You don’t have to have a flat structure to achieve success, but you will have to break some of those rules that have seemed “tried and true since time in memoriam”. Knock down the ladder. Shake up the system. See what happens when you allow everyone the opportunity to lead.

You might like the new shape of business.