Awesomely Simple: Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas Into Action

4.3. Topple the Pyramid

The only thing that can slow you down more than bureaucracy is senseless layers of hierarchy. A leader's job is to break down barriers, not build up monuments to his or her own importance. I have worked in ten-person organizations with an unbelievable four layers of hierarchy.

Organizations that embrace a sense of urgency make it easy for people to navigate the structure of the business. Transparency, open-door policies, skip-level meetings, and access to even the highest-level executives are the norm in all of the successful organizations I have worked in. Nearly every company understands that in today's business culture, the old command-and-control, organization-chart-driven hierarchy of the past is dead. So the question ...