Get Better at Flatter
A Guide to Shaping and Leading Organizations with less Hierarchy
Get better at designing flatter structures.
A research-based and practice-proven approach to managing organizations with less hierarchy.
Choose the right goal – pick the right people – treat them correctly
OVERVIEW
A Guide to Shaping and Leading Organizations with less Hierarchy
When should organizations think about adopting a flat structure? And what does it take to make it work? Is it even the silver bullet that we’ve been told it is? Often we have heard about how businesses should organize in non-traditional ways to succeed in today’s world: be ‘agile’, or adopt approaches such as ‘holacracy,’ ‘RenDanHeYi’ or ‘scrum’. But what do these concepts actually mean? Are they even helping us to custom-tailor flat structures to our needs?
Leading expert, Markus Reitzig, provides a no-holds barred account of flat organizational structures, taking the good with the bad and asking the reader to balance the opportunities and challenges that come with less hierarchical structures. He explains that there are many types of flat organizations, and that they may only be better than traditional companies in some instances, and only when the company picks the right structure given its goal and its people.
Taking an evidence-based approach to the advantages and disadvantages of decentralizing, this book offers a unique, practical guide for managers. You’ll learn how to formulate realistic goals with fewer hierarchical layers, where to decentralize, whom to recruit and how to treat your staff. This is an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to figure out how to work with flat organizational structures, and whether ‘flat’ may even be right for them.
Having a hard time making sense of contemporary advice on how to be fast and flexible?
- Not sure what many of the modern concepts mean?
- Not sure why doing with fewer management layers should help?
- Not sure if it is the right thing for your company
- Forget the fads and focus on facts-based advice
- The BetterFlatter toolkit is timeless, evidence-based, and avoids management jargon
We do not condemn hierarchical structures. We don’t proselytize managers.
- We help you analyze if and where becoming flatter may help you to be more innovative, speedier, or more attractive as an employer.
- To do so, we build on
+15 years of leading academic research from our lab, coauthors, and other global experts - Insights from dozens of real-world companies
Seeking to delayer a grown hierarchy?
- Use our thinking and tools to determine how far and where to decentralize decision-making within your company
- Trying to retain your flat structure while growing?
- Use our thinking and tools to succeed without implementing hierarchical layers
Get better at designing flatter structures.
- Our toolkit helps you avoid the most frequent pitfalls when shaping and leading an organization with few hierarchical layers.
- Choose the right goal – pick the right people – treat them correctly
Who is the Book for?
Large Companies
– Trying to reduce the number of hierarchical layers in your company?
Understand when it makes sense, what it takes in terms of people, and what you can do to create the right environment
The BetterFlatter apps and the book help you formulate realistic delayering goals, select the right people, and create a playfield that suits them and your company
– Need to become more creative?
Understand how flat structures can aid in unleashing the creative potential among your employees
The BetterFlatter apps and the book help you determine how far to decentralize decision-making to your employees, in which areas of responsibility, and to which people precisely to boost your in-house innovation efforts. And they will help you assess if it is realistic in your company.
– Need to become faster?
Understand how flat structures can aid in reacting faster to market developments and competitor actions
The BetterFlatter apps and the book help you determine how far to decentralize decision-making to your employees, in which areas of responsibility, and to which people precisely to become speedier in reacting to market developments and client requests. And they will help you assess if it is realistic in your company.
– Trying to retain and attract the best people?
The BetterFlatter apps and the book help you determine how far to decentralize decision-making to your employees and in which areas of responsibility to attract and bind talent. And they will help you assess if it is realistic in your company.
Start Ups
Need to grow but want to retain your flat DNA?
Understand whether you’re in a situation in which you can make it work, which environment you need to provide to your people, and who to hire in the process of growth.
The BetterFlatter apps and the book help you formulate realistic goals for your flat growth path, select the right people, and create a playfield that suits them and your company.
Consultants
– Help your clients take a structured, evidence-based approach in reorganizing their company
We know that nowadays many corporations seek advice on how to reshape and delayer their traditional hierarchical structures, or on how to avoid ending up having one in the first place. Driven by the quest to be fast and flexible, and confused by modern management mantras, they often formulate unrealistic goals given their staff and other constraints.
The BetterFlatter apps and the book will enable you to help your clients formulate realistic goals for their company when adopting flatter structures, enable the right people, and create a playfield that suits their staff to boost performance eventually. Importantly, you will also learn when to advise against embarking on an unrealistic mission.
Educators
– Teach your students how to design organizations that work with fewer middle layers of management
Do you train students or executives how to shape and lead organizations? Are flat structures of recurring interest to your participants? Do you want to equip them with both evidence-based thinking and real world case material? Then you may want to think about adding the concepts described in the book “Get better at flatter – shaping and leading organizations with less hierarchy” to your syllabus!
Draw from a set of additional free resources in addition to ordering the book. The BetterFlatter apps will come in handy – no matter whether you teach a workshop to managers or an entire class to university students.
About
I have been researching, teaching, and advising on novel forms of organizing for the last +15 years. I believe that flat structures exude an air of freshness and can (!) be extremely effective in getting work done. However, I also know that moony approaches to delayering and flat growth can lead companies into serious trouble. I wrote the book and created the BetterFlatter toolkit for you to formulate realistic goals and avoid the pitfalls when implementing a less hierarchical structure in your organization.
Markus Reitzig is Professor of Strategic Management and Subject Area Chair at the University of Vienna. Dr. Reitzig is a global authority on the strategic management of new organizational forms. His research has been featured in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, McKinsey Quarterly, and Business Strategy Review, and his studies have been published in the finest academic journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Research Policy, Strategic Management Journal, and many others. Markus is regularly sought after as an expert interviewee for national and international media and frequently presents at public and corporate events. He has been a speaker at several TEDx events over the past years on the subject of hierarchy-less organizations.
Start now, learn how and contact us for more
Start now
- Read the introductory chapter of the book
- Read a summary article from the Journal of Organization Design
Learn how
- Use the free BetterFlatter design app
- Get inspired using the BetterFlatter get inspired app
- Order the book
Get Better at Flatter
Use our apps and other resources for free
