Thanks Erik for the extensive response.
Ultimately what counts is ongoing progress. If the model proposed is an
improvement from the current, solving specific problems we currently
have, then fine and I'm all or it.
I'm still stuck in one point:
On 11/19/2012 07:54 PM, Erik Moeller wrote:
3) Why not have an even flatter structure?
My prediction with a structure like the one you propose would be the following:
If you increase the number of direct engineering-related reports to
Sue from 1 to 5, her ability to meet and seriously interact with any
one of them will drop to close to zero, with no time for goal-setting
conversations, career pathing, or serious conflict resolution.
One could ask why so many things need to be reported to or pass through
a single person? This is the factor defining the angle of verticality of
an organization.
Why not having more decentralized reporting (broadcasting),
goal-setting, career path, or serious conflict resolution?
Why not betting on a more brave contemporary model being a non-profit
foundation, with hundred-something employees, an open source culture, an
Internet culture, a wiki culture, a remote work culture, a contributors
culture, an online community culture, a San Francisco Bay tech startup
inspiration?
I understand what you are explaining about the board being the first
body defining this kind of game. As for today the board is an entity too
unilateral and abstract for me, but I'm willing to help bringing this
type of message to them if these opinions are shared by others.
BUT
Well, at least your proposal doesn't go against this scenario. Perhaps
is one step in that direction. Good enough here and now, I guess. Thank
you for trying! And for opening this discussion. Just please consider
further steps flattening and decentralizing the WMF.
There is a blog post & video circulating these days, about how GitHub
Inc is organized as a company. They also manage a version control system
promoting decentralized collaboration, plus other tools supporting this
core goal and the big community around it. They are also
hundred-something. They have also offices in San Francisco. They are
also a young organization growing fast. Etc.
The video is interesting and entertaining. The slides are simple and
fun. I'm not a person for watching 40min YouTube videos, even less about
HR & business management topics - but this one was very interesting to
watch. Even if only as a documentary of how certain company running
certain product I like happens to work:
Your team should work like an open source project
http://tomayko.com/writings/adopt-an-open-source-process-constraints
http://youtu.be/mrONxcyQo4E
--
Quim
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