Get Better at Flatter: A Guide to Shaping and Leading Organizations with Less Hierarchy

Preface and Acknowledgments
Praise for Get Better at Flatter
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction
	Why Read this Book?
	What the Book Does for You Exactly
	How to Read This Book
	Bibliography
Part I: Why Flat Structures Work at All
	1: What Does It Mean to Move Toward a “Flatter” Structure?
		Bibliography
	2: What Managers Can Effectively and Efficiently Delegate
		The Fundamental Problems of Organizing—The 4+1 Framework
			Task Division
			Task Allocation
			Rewards Distribution
			Information Exchange
		(Where) Does Self-organization Work Effectively?
		(Where) Does High Delegation Save Managerial Time?
		Bibliography
	3: Why Would Employees Ever Assume Extra Work in a Decentralized Organization?
		How Exactly Autonomy Motivates Staff—Nailing the Psychological Mechanisms
		Why and to What End Does Quasi-decentralization Motivate Employees? A Conceptual Map
		Appendix
		Bibliography
Part II: What Managers Can Do to Make Flat Structures Work Well
	4: What Type of Persons Should You Take on the Journey?
		Who Is Truly Willing to Embark on a Journey Toward More Decentralization?
			Extraordinarily Motivated by Autonomy
			Willing to Put Up with the Costs
		And Who Is Capable (Enough)?
		So, What’s the Practical Takeaway in Terms of Who We Should Bring to the New Structure?
		Bibliography
	5: How to Enforce and Foster Effective Self-organization?
		Preventing the Breakdown of the Flat Structure
			Ensuring Collaboration among Existing Staff in a Quasi-decentralized Structure
			Providing Support
				Access to Information
				Psychological “Empowerment”
		The Important Takeaways
		Bibliography
	6: How to Design the Playing Field for Efficient Quasi-decentralization?
		Reducing Costs of Task Division and Allocation Through Modularization
		Slack as a Means to Allow for Frictionless Autonomous Rewards Distribution
		Structured Processes in Exception Management—Voting, Lateral Authority, and Arbitration
		The Important Takeaways
		Bibliography
Part III: When, Why, and How Flat Structures Can Beat Traditional Hierarchies
	7: When Can Flat Structures Beat More Centralized Structures?
		A Yardstick for Comparing the Effectiveness of Flat and More Centralized Structures
		The Flat Advantage—When to Delegate Why, Where, and How Much
			Finding Innovative Solutions to Business Problems
			Increasing Speed to Market
			Attracting and Retaining Talent
		What to Take Away
		Bibliography
	8: Where Does a Flat Structure Reach its Limits?
		Information Costs in (Quasi-)Decentralized and Centralized Structures
		Information-Gathering Performance as a Function of Group Size
		Information Assessment Performance as a Function of Group Size
		Taking Action on Information
		Additional Thoughts—Rethinking Hierarchical Structures
		What to Take Away
		Bibliography
	9: The Guide(s) to Successful Decentralizing
		Delayering to Become More Creative—When You Seek Ideas to Roll Out across the Company
		Delayering to Become Faster—When Speed Depends on Finding Local Solutions Fast
		Delayering to Retain and Attract Talent
		Growing in a Flat Way
		Takeaways and Outlook
		Bibliography
Part IV: Test Your Understanding
	10: Delayering the Hierarchical Firm: The Case of Borek
		Part A: 1893 Until 2018 in Fast Motion
			Why Reorganize in the First Place?
		Part B: from 2018 Until Today
			How Far Down Can We Go in Delegating Decision-Making Power?
			How to Give Teams the Rights to Make Design Decisions Within the Scope of Their Projects?
			On the Scope of Delegation to Operating Teams
			Provide Managerial Guidance, Autonomy Support, and a Suitable Playing Field for Self-organized Work
			Signs of Increased Motivations Through Autonomy: Self-determination, Control, Engagement, and Attachment
			Changes in Behavior and Personality Traits Shining Through
			Challenges Along the Way
			Outcomes So Far and Opportunities Ahead
	11: Flat Growth: The Case of wirDesign
		Part A: 1982 Through 2021—Flat Back Then, and Flat Today
			wirDesign’s Organizational Design During the Early Days
			The People Behind the Early wirDesign
			Success and Growth
		Part B: What Happened in Between…
			From 1982 to 1987
			From 1987 to 1992
			From 1991 to 1992 in Detail
			From 1999 Through 2001/2002
			From 2002 to 2010
			From 2010 Through 2015
			From 2015 to Today
			Flat Growth?
	12: Flat Fads or More? From a as in “agile” to z as in “zi zhu jing ying ti” …
		A Potpourri of Applied Approaches to Nontraditional Organizing—Why Did They Come About at All?
		Why They Were Created in the First Place
			Agile
			Scrum
			DAOs
			Holacracy
			RenDanHeYi
		What They Actually Provide to Users
			Agile
			Scrum
			DAOs
			Holacracy
			RenDanHeYi
		Mapping the Approaches onto the Thinking Underlying and Developed in this Book
		So What’s Really New?
		How Would We Classify the Above Approaches?
			Agile
			Scrum
			DAOs
			Holacracy
			RenDanHeYi
		Important Takeaways
		Concluding Remarks
		Bibliography
Glossary
	Bibliography
Index