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How Medium Is Building a New Kind of Company with No Managers

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Re: How Medium Is Building a New Kind of Company with No Managers

#11

Post by potatolicious »

balls187 wrote: post #9
nasalgoat wrote: post #4

The key takeaway from the article is that Medium is still under 50 people. At that size, any sort of hokum management style will probably work. Call me when you hit 200+.

Gabe Newell is on line 3. Valve is famous for their flat organizational structure. At nearly 200 people and multi-billions in revenue, it can work. Ofc Valve does a lot more than a simple blog site.

Valve has also been called out by former employees for not being actually structureless. They don't have an official org chart, but there's an unofficial one at work anyways.

Any sufficient large group of people will self-organize into hierarchies. A refusal to write it down doesn't prevent this from happening, it just means people are even less accountable for the position they occupy.

"We believe in flatness" usually is code for "we believe in the appearance of flatness".

Re: How Medium Is Building a New Kind of Company with No Managers

#12

Post by mbca »

potatolicious wrote: post #11
balls187 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gabe Newell is on line 3. Valve is famous for their flat organizational structure. At nearly 200 people and multi-billions in revenue, it can work. Ofc Valve does a lot more than a simple blog site.

Valve has also been called out by former employees for not being actually structureless. They don't have an official org chart, but there's an unofficial one at work anyways. Any sufficient large group of people will self-organize into hierarchies. A refusal to write it down doesn't prevent this from happening, it just means people are even less accountable for the position they occupy. "We believe in flatness" usual…

Yet another chance to call out the highly relevant essay "The Tyranny of Structurelessness":

http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm

It should be required reading for anyone pushing the "we don't need managers" line.

Re: How Medium Is Building a New Kind of Company with No Managers

#13

Post by skorecky »

untog wrote: post #3

I don't quite buy it. I'll guarantee that there are figures who call the shots in the company, whether they are called "managers" or not.

Did you read beyond the headline? Pulled from the article he talks about this and pin points two ideas behind making decisions:

1. "Make everything explicit — from vacation policies to decision makers in each area."

2. "Distribute decision-making power and discourage consensus seeking."

Re: How Medium Is Building a New Kind of Company with No Managers

#14

Post by spiritplumber »

How is this new? We've been doing that since 2011.

http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/index.php?n=Main.MeshMa...

(I know this was just put on the wiki, that's because we're revamping it. I have gmail timestamps if you like).

I'm getting sick and tired of seeing in the news stuff that I've been doing for years, even told the relevant press outlets about, and getting crickets in return!

Re: How Medium Is Building a New Kind of Company with No Managers

#15

Post by Iftheshoefits »

anateus wrote: post #7

Several comments on the thread seem to not have read the article. Specifically: while they do not have "traditional people managers", they have people they call "Lead Links" and "Domain Leads" who take on management roles. It seems many are reading the title of the article and imagining a utopian experiment in total anarchy.

Giving managers titles that don't have the word "manager" in them doesn't mean that there aren't managers. Describing their responsibilities as being "mentor"-like rather than "managerial" doesn't mean they aren't, in fact, managing.

The headline is rather explicitly stating that Medium is building a company with "no managers," and then the article goes on to describe some rather transparently bad attempts at euphemistically calling "managers" something other than "manager." I think the commenters you're referring to can be forgiven because of that.

Re: How Medium Is Building a New Kind of Company with No Managers

#16

Post by balls187 »

potatolicious wrote: post #11
balls187 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gabe Newell is on line 3. Valve is famous for their flat organizational structure. At nearly 200 people and multi-billions in revenue, it can work. Ofc Valve does a lot more than a simple blog site.

Valve has also been called out by former employees for not being actually structureless. They don't have an official org chart, but there's an unofficial one at work anyways. Any sufficient large group of people will self-organize into hierarchies. A refusal to write it down doesn't prevent this from happening, it just means people are even less accountable for the position they occupy. "We believe in flatness" usual…

> Any sufficient large group of people will self-organize into hierarchies. A refusal to write it down doesn't prevent this from happening, it just means people are even less accountable for the position they occupy.

My takeaway for Valve was they wanted self-organizing heirachies, but wanted to avoid people who's ambition was to "manage."

That is, people will naturally take leadership roles for a project, and at the projects conclusion, go back to the fold.

By requiring leaders to lead without authority, it demands a different kind of leader.

Re: How Medium Is Building a New Kind of Company with No Managers

#17

Post by skorecky »

spiritplumber wrote: post #14

How is this new? We've been doing that since 2011. http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/index.php?n=Main.MeshMa... (I know this was just put on the wiki, that's because we're revamping it. I have gmail timestamps if you like). I'm getting sick and tired of seeing in the news stuff that I've been doing for years, even told the relevant press outlets about, and getting crickets in return!

For one, it's new for them. Secondly, just because you been doing it since 2011 doesn't mean people don't like reading about how others are doing it. Where is your blog post?

Re: How Medium Is Building a New Kind of Company with No Managers

#19

Post by rouxbot »

skorecky wrote: post #17
spiritplumber wrote: post #14

How is this new? We've been doing that since 2011. http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/index.php?n=Main.MeshMa... (I know this was just put on the wiki, that's because we're revamping it. I have gmail timestamps if you like). I'm getting sick and tired of seeing in the news stuff that I've been doing for years, even told the relevant press outlets about, and getting crickets in return!

For one, it's new for them. Secondly, just because you been doing it since 2011 doesn't mean people don't like reading about how others are doing it. Where is your blog post?

Not new actually, Medium started with Holacracy either in late 2011 or early 2012. This article is about a year and a half old...
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