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Are organizational structures needed

by bernt & torsten

…. what about an idea to unravel the corset from organizational charts and strict, merciless structures, to clean up with outdated views, to allow liberties and to give new impetus to internal processes.

To hell with structure!?

No, we do not really want that. We do not want to complete anarchy.

Hierarchies provide security – and the assurance that someone else has to make critical decisions.

The downside is that they can create inertia and some form of crippling powerlessness in any system. In order to first be heard as an employee, to implement your own ideas, which may take place outside the specifically assigned area of responsibility, you first have to be promoted. One does not feel taken seriously “from above” and only longingly yearns for the next promotion in order to be able to exert more influence.

However, trust does not work that way. It cannot be artificially created or enforced, it must be able to spread, breathe freely and develop its own momentum.

What would happen if a “collaboration room” could emerge instead of an organization chart – a form of cooperation that is not characterized by merciless hierarchies and inexorable structures, but takes place in a framework that allows room for personal development? Can this work?

The answer is yes and the success is based on some basic rules of the game. Completely playing without rules is conceivably pointless and does not work in the longer term.

We regard the “collaboration space” as a place where it is possible to have more design possibilities in a clearly defined framework than strict hierarchies would allow. A kind of “free marketplace” for ideas and their realization can only work if all employees are treated like adults, taken seriously and not just reduced to their fixed place in the organization chart.