In 1999, General Electric had over 400,000
employees and a market cap of $480 billion.
By 2023, GE had split into three companies, lost
half of its workforce, and was no longer in the S&P 100.
Meanwhile, Stripe, a payment processor founded
in 2010 with fewer than 10,000 employees, is now valued at $65
billion (source: Crunchbase). What happened? Is it technology? Capital?
Or something more invisible?
If you look closely, it’s not the size of the
company that predicts organizational agility, It’s
the structure behind it.
According to a 2023 McKinsey report, 60%
of executives say their org structure is
a “barrier to speed” in decision-making. And yet, most companies still
manage scalable growth like it’s 1985 and using hierarchical
management models designed for stability, not velocity.
We are told that organizational
hierarchy brings clarity. That lines and boxes on a slide ensure
accountability. But what if the same boxes that define your departments are
quietly defining your limits?
Steve Jobs once said, “It doesn’t make
sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do.” At Apple’s
early days, the hierarchy was flat. Not because they lacked titles, but
because they lacked time. Time to route decisions through layers. Time to wait
for approvals. Time to explain innovation to people whose job is to maintain
the status quo.
So why do modern organizations still cling
to chains of command, managerial escalations, and
multi-layered approval systems? Why do entry-level employees still need
“permission” to speak up in strategy meetings?
A Harvard Business Review study
found that in traditional hierarchical organizations, only 3% of
employees feel empowered to share new ideas beyond their
department (Source: HBR, “Structure That’s Killing Innovation”).
This is not a people problem, it's a structure problem.
The Real Blockers Aren’t Boxes, They’re People
It comes from frictionless
contribution when anyone, regardless of title, can move an idea
forward if it's in the company’s interest. But that only works if your team
allows it.
Every company has speed bumpers. Not the kind drawn on slides, but the kind sitting
in meetings. They don’t resist because the idea is bad. They resist
because it wasn’t theirs, or because you’re not above
them in the hierarchy. They delay decisions. They kill energy. They
silence momentum. And they hide behind phrases like “it’s not my job” or “who
gave you permission?”
These individuals represent more than poor
attitude, they embody a toxic work culture. They don’t
see the product as their own. They don’t care if the company wins, they care
if they’re in charge when it does. They refuse to collaborate unless
compensated up front. They ask for rewards before results.
They reject new directions unless those directions come down from someone with
the right title.
This is more than toxic attitude. It’s structural sabotage. And the longer they stay, the more high-performing, ambitious professionals will leave. In high-velocity teams, everyone shares responsibility for the mission. Titles don’t give people the right to shut down ideas; performance does. And performance today depends on cross-functional collaboration, not control.
The manager’s job is no longer to direct. It’s to assemble. Build a team where each person is sharper than you are in at least one domain. Then get out of the way. And The employee’s job? To challenge, assist, and contribute wherever value is needed. If the most junior developer has an idea that improves a product by 20%, and the design lead says, “You’re not senior enough to decide,” your company just paid for arrogance with growth.
Too many companies reward compliance with the org chart instead of team performance across it. And too many brilliant ideas are suffocated in silence because of unspoken rules about who’s allowed to speak.
Final Advice
If you want speed at scale,
don’t just flatten your structure, eliminate the internal
blockers who use hierarchy to protect themselves from
accountability. Build a culture where initiative matters more than title.
Where collaborative leadership is expected. Where
rewards follow contribution, not conversation.
Recognize and reward those who take action in
the company’s favor, even when it's not in their job description. And when you
see someone blocking progress because “that’s not my responsibility” understand this: the problem isn’t just them. It’s your operating
model that allows them to persist.
Because if your org chart has become a chain of
excuses, your growth strategy isn’t just delayed but it’s denied.
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Farhad
Hafez Nezami
Tech
& Sports Entrepreneur | Growth Strategist
#OrgDesign #OrganizationalAgility
#ScalingChallenges #StartupCulture #LeadershipDevelopment #CorporateStructure
#TeamPerformance #CollaborativeLeadership #FlatHierarchy #ToxicWorkCulture
#ScalableGrowth #BusinessStrategy #OrgChartProblems #CompanyCulture
#InnovationBarriers #CrossFunctionalTeams #HighPerformanceTeams
#AgileManagement #EmployeeEmpowerment #ManagementStrategy
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