Comparing all the companies I’ve worked with,
the flatter companies
are, by far, the more creative.
(Flatter does not equal smaller.
A major beverage company I worked for
was organized into
smaller, flatter autonomous groups.
The company was huge
but flat.)
Why?
Because every layer an idea
has to pass through
to get to the true decision maker
can kill that idea.
As Max McKeown shares
“Often a supervisor decides
whether to pass it on or not.
The filtering process continues
until a small number of ideas
arrive at the top.
So which ideas get through?
Only the ideas that managers believe
are acceptable.
These are often not the good ideas.
They are unlikely to be
the transformational ideas
or the ideas that inspire
the rest of the company.
This kind of filter doesn’t give
enough ideas a chance.”
If you want a creative company,
give everyone access
to the key decision makers.