Do we really need another level in the hierarchy?

When teams grow often the number of hierarchy levels grows, too. First, one person has 3 people in their team, then each of them grows a team of their own, they become team leads and the team lead becomes director, etc. To many this is the logical, unavoidable way things go. How else would you do this? Well, luckily there are more and more companies trying out other ways to work. Now, don’t worry, this is not going to be an advocacy letter for or against traditional management systems. Just a reminder, that the best solution for your organization in that particular situation, might not be “how things have always bees done around here”.

What are examples of this?

teams can exist next to each other, instead of on top of each other
a group can lead itself
a group can decide what their lead does and doesn’t do
a leader can be lateral “only”
and there are many more (write your ideas in the comments below!)

All these other ways are possibilities. Not all may work at your office, but some will. There are ways to try out new options. But as they are new, they have to be carefully introduced, tested, observed and improved over time.

Sit with the team and discuss what you think today the best option is.
Agree on a set of rules, on who does what, divide all responsibilities between the team members.
Make sure you document all this somewhere (e.g. in teamdecoder ;)
Start a Governance Process: Decide who your Governance Moderator should be and put a regular meeting in the agendas, where you will compare the day to day with the documented roles, responsibilities and tasks and adapt them to make them better and more precise over time.

The idea to write things down in a place where everybody involved can see, has nothing to do with control or overambitious documentation thrills, but with clarity and transparency — the only remedy in complex transformation process pains.

So, coming back to that original question: Maybe a new hierarchy level is exactly what you need. But maybe it’s not — give yourself the chance to find out!

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